Sledding

We went to Rock Canyon Park to do a little family sledding. It was fun. The kids saw the hill and got a little scared at first. But, once they tried it, they loved it! Jon brought his snow board and did a little snowboarding. Then they used the snowboard as a sled and he took Leah down the hill to race Alex and Caleb. Leah preferred going down the hill on her own bum, and not a sled because it wasn't as fast. Alex and Caleb had a roll-over and got a little hurt. When Alex went down by himself another time he crashed and hit his face pretty hard into the snow. That was when we decided to make a day of it and come back home for some nice hot chocolate.

Christmas 2007

Christmas was great. We start out on Christmas Eve by having our kids open up their first present. They get a new pair of pj's and slippers to go with it. After the kids are bathed and in their new pj's we go on a "pajama-rama". (Jon made up the pajama-rama a few years ago. It's when we're all in pj's and go on a drive in our van.) We drive all around the city to see the Christmas decorations and lights that people have on their houses. It's so fun to see all the lights and the kids all end up falling asleep. This year it happened so fast. We were only 5 miles into our pajama-rama when all of our kids were fast asleep. When we get home we just put them straight to bed and they're already asleep! It's great! It helps them fall asleep when they're so excited about Santa Claus coming.

Christmas morning came, and so did Santa! He ate the cookies the kids made and left them presents in their stockings. Alex got Shrek the Third and some Shrek toys, a candy cane filled with M&M's, a tie, and an orange. Caleb got Ratatouille, a LEGO construction truck, a candy cane filled with M&M's, a tie, and an orange. Leah got a lot of Polly Pocket's, PollyWorld DVD, a tiny baby doll, a candy cane filled with M&M's, and an orange.

We got our kids each a suitcase, clothes, dinner plates with their picture on it, a digital camera, Leap Pad games and Leah got a Leap Pad. They enjoyed opening the presents they bought for each other. Leah bought Alex a LEGO helicopter, and Caleb a Batman backpack. Caleb bought Alex a LEGO Mars Mission set, and Leah a aqua doodle book and some baby bottles. Alex bought Leah a little High School Musical guitar that sings the HSM song and an Elmo doll, and Caleb a Ratatouille Leap Pad game. They also got some nice new church clothes. The boys needed new suits and Leah's red dress is adorable. Jon and I got some fun things too. Jon's favorite was his new air drill, and my favorite was my new robe and some DVD games (Deal Or No Deal and Family Feud).

We went to my Grandma's house on Christmas day. The boys got some nice dishes (Alex's are Spiderman, and Caleb's are Cars). Leah got a Princess duffle bag that came in handy in bringing all of the presents home. Every year we get quart jars filled with pistachio nuts from my Grandma. I LOVE getting my own "stash" of nuts every Christmas.

Jon's two aunts came to visit on Christmas. Aunt Denise came from Salt Lake, and Aunt Robin was here all the way from Washington state. We got to play Scene It Music Edition with Denise while Aunt Bun played Leap Pad games with Alex and Caleb. It was a fun visit.

We had a simple dinner that I cooked just for our family. My parents were in Las Vegas, and we had been to Nephi to see Jon's family on the 23rd. So, it was a nice quiet dinner with just our family. I made ham, a potato casserole, veggies, salad, rolls, and jello. I thought it was delicious, but my kids didn't touch the potatoes. I found a new recipe and I guess they don't like it very much.

My parents came home from Las Vegas on Dec 26th. We went to their house for a lasagna dinner and to open more presents! I got some new frames to hang my family pictures in. Jon got a power supply for his radios. All of our kids got a LEGO set. Alex got a fire rescue boat.

Caleb got a LEGO city car wash and gas station set. So cute!! I love all of the little details!

Leah got a bucket full of Lego's. We built a little house, car and helicopter for her from her set. Our family got another LEGO set that is a castle. It was tougher to put together than the other ones so my mom and I put it together. The kids all helped us with the other sets. The pictures don't do the LEGO sets justice. It took us HOURS to put together all of these Lego's. I think we added up that there were 1392 pieces all together!!!

We had a fabulous Christmas and now we have the challenge of finding permanent homes in our house for all of these new items! I hope everyone else had a great Christmas too. Here are some pictures from our Lanier Christmas party at Christel and Alan's house.

"I can't believe this isn't just a dream," Alex

Funny Quote

After seeing this picture on the computer while blog-surfing, Alex and Caleb couldn't stop talking about the Darth Vader whose helmet comes off. We went to Jon's sister (Christel) and brother-in-law's (Alan) house for a Christmas party tonight. Alex and Caleb both got new Star Wars toys from Grandfather Lanier. They were ECSTATIC! After playing with them for a few minutes we heard Alex exclaim,

"I can't believe this isn't just a dream!"

He has continued to be in awe that his wish has been fulfilled. Caleb, too, was saying that he got exactly what he was wishing for. I'm glad their happy. Jon and I even asked them, "Well, since your wish has come true can't we give all the other presents we have for you to someone who doesn't have anything?" They weren't quite willing to do that. The joy of giving will come as they get older, they're much more in to the joy of receiving right now. I guess that's ok for little kids. That's what Christmas is all about--seeing joy in the little kids' eyes! This is the set that Caleb got. It's Luke Skywalker with Yoda and Obi-Wan Kenobi's ghost.

Making Cookies

I needed to make sugar cookies for a party tonight, so I decided to let the kids each make 2 cookies for Santa. I gave them each some dough to roll out and cut out shapes. After they were cooked the kids loved decorating them. If you want to see the ones I decorated you can see them on my cake web page.

Leah made the snowman and the tree at the bottom. Caleb made the reindeer at the right and the snowman at the top. Alex made the reindeer at the top and the Santa Claus. They did a great job decorating.

City of Trains

Gary and Joyce in our neighborhood have lots of trains. They invited us over so our kids could see their wonderful train sets. The kids watched with wide eyes and were so excited about every detail. There are tiny rabbits, a farm with animals, a ski lodge, and TONS of other buildings and details in their miniature winter wonderland. The train even stopped in front of the kids so they could get a Hershey Kiss from one of the cars. After we saw their Christmas train they took us to the "train room" in their basement where Gary keeps his model trains. There are so many tiny details including cabins, lawn mowers, roads, a mountain with tunnels, canoes, etc. It's like looking at an "I Spy" book in real life.

What Nature Shows Can Do

We were lounging around this afternoon and decided to watch a National Geographic program on TV. It was talking about all kinds of animals. It was mainly Jon and I watching, but the kids would come in occasionaly and become engaged with the fox eating the gazelle or something. About 30 minutes later we hear Alex yell,

"Leah just laid some babies!!"

We came into the living room where Leah was laying on her three newly hatched babies keeping them warm. It was SO funny!

Making Ornaments

Alex brought home an ornament that he had been making at school. He had asked the teacher for 2 extra copies of it so Caleb and Leah could make one too. He is so thoughtful. When he was in kindergarten he was always bringing home extra papers to give to Caleb. This is them working on their cute ornaments.

And here are their final products! Caleb's is at the top. Leah's is in the middle. Alex's is at the bottom. Good job kids!

Happy 30th Anniversary Mom and Dad

Today was my parents 30th wedding anniversary. We surprised them by making them dinner and a small anniversary cake. My mom didn't know we were coming over, so she had already started cooking some pork spare ribs in the crock pot before she went to church. So, I just baked the cheesy potatoes, made buttermilk biscuits, salad, and corn to go with it. I was planning on making BBQ pork chops, but we'll have to have those another day. You can visit my cake web page to see the cake that I made for them.

Dinner with the Weber's

We were invited to go to our friend's house for dinner tonight. They moved this past summer from our ward to Highland. I used to switch off with Melissa doing preschool with our kids. It was fun to get together. We had hamburgers, hot dogs, potato salad, veggies, fruit, chips and brownies and ice cream. Melissa had made this really cute SANTA game (like Bingo) that the kids loved playing. They also enjoyed playing with their friends, Noah, Kaleb, Carson, and Garrett. They miss playing with them. It's fun to get together with friends. I wish they were closer so we could do stuff together more often.

Breakfast in Bed

I woke up today to the most wonderful surprise! My kids made me breakfast in bed! After Jon leaves I usually lay in bed for a while longer before I'm ready to face the day. I heard my kids "playing" nicely and just let them play while I layed down a little longer. Before I knew it Alex comes into my room with our wooden tray with breakfast for me! He said, "Wake up, Mommy! We made you breakfast!" His face was beaming with a gigantic smile. They had made me a tortilla with grated cheese in it and a glass of water. Alex told me that the water had spilled a little. As he placed the wooden tray on my bed I could see the 1/4 inch of water floating in it as it was dripping onto my bed. I thanked him and told my kids how wonderful they are. I brought my breakfast into the kitchen (where I could drain off the excess water) and eat with my wonderful children. Caleb informed me, "I told Alex we couldn't use the oven." I'm grateful that they thought of me, but I'm also glad they didn't try to cook anything. I reminded them that they are still too little to use the stove or microwave, and they agreed. They said, "We can do this every day! You don't have to make breakfast for us anymore." I was so proud of my cute kids who thought of me this morning. They really are caring and loving children.

Elf Yourself

This video will get you in the holiday mood for sure! These are the cutest elves I've ever seen! (Ok, I might be a bit partial). Check it out. It even has my kids voices on it. Alex, Caleb, and Leah all say "Merry Christmas".

http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1142789013

Thanks, Kelli, for the great idea that I got from your web page.

The First Snow Storm

Alex, Leah, Caleb

I can't believe the first snow storm didn't come until December 1st. Our kids were SO excited when they saw all of the snow. As soon as we got home from the Christmas Party (see the previous post), they suited up into their snow suits and headed outside. They each put on their snow suits, coats, and cotton gloves, then Jon put some rubber gloves over the top of their regular gloves so their hands wouldn't get wet. He's so inventive! It worked. They were able to play outside for almost 2 hours and their little hands stayed dry and warm.

A Visit With Santa

Every year BYU has a party for all of their employees and their families. We like to go so the kids can visit Santa. Alex, Caleb and Leah wrote a letter to Santa that said what they wanted this year for Christmas. They got to give him the letter in person. At the party they also can do crafts (which we avoided like the plague this year---crazy), play games (like pinata, ice fishing, cake walk, ring toss, etc), and there are lots of performances we can watch while eating doughnuts. Our kids love it. Caleb said that this year was "way funner than last year." I don't know what the difference was. It seemed "exactly" the same to me! It was even more perfect that the first snow storm came on December 1st, and we got to see Santa that day!

Christmas Decorations

The day after Thanksgiving, or Black Friday as it is known, means decorating the house for Christmas at our house! I usually brave the weather and the crowds and hit a few of the sales in the wee morning hours. This year, I slept in. It was nice. After we had all had breakfast we started getting out the boxes and boxes and boxes of Christmas decorations. Jon focused on the lights for the outside of the house. He is so good at checking each strand of lights and fixing the ones that need fixing. I worked on the Christmas tree and the other decorations on our entertainment center, and our fireplace. I love the Christmas season and I like to enjoy it as long as possible. So, here's my Christmas tree. It's the first year we've had this 7' tree. I really love it. The picture I took was during the day and it just doesn't do it justice.

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving! We had a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner with our family and Jon's dad (Grandfather Lanier). I made turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, corn, gravy, and cranberry jello. Everyone was stuffed--as usual. My turkey got done a couple of hours before I expected it to, so I had to keep it in the oven on "warm" for a while. That was good though. It gave me time to finish preparing the rest of the food. After dinner we went outside to play some baseball. It was chilly, but fun. Grandfather pitched the ball and the kids took turns batting. Even Leah is getting better at actually hitting the ball. Her coordination is getting better. We came back in to have some pie. I made apple pie and pumpkin pie. Everything was made from scratch. Well, the apple pie filling was home-made by a neighbor. I made the crusts and pumpkin pie filling. I even cooked the pumpkin myself from our Halloween pumpkins, mashed it up, and made the pie from it! Everything tasted great. I love Thanksgiving. I love it even more because it means I get to decorate for Christmas at my house now!!

BYU Basketball Game

We went to the BYU Women's basketball game last night. It started earlier, so we were only able to see the last half of the game. They lost :( We decided to stay for the men's game afterwards and it was a really good game. We stayed for more than half of the game. BYU was winning by about 20 points when we left. Byron, Alex's friend and our neighbor, was starting to get tired. Caleb was too, so we didn't stay for the whole game. They all had fun cheering "Rah, Rah, Rah-Rah-Rah, Goooooo Cougars!" That is Leah's favorite part of the game! She also had fun eating popcorn from the family behind us and playing on the empty chairs. What a goof! There was even a point in time where she was doing "Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes" as loud as she could. Everyone else around us was being loud, so she fit right in.

Kindergarten Ready

Caleb has been working on a Kindergarten Math book since June. I bought Caleb a kindergarten one and Alex two 1st grade books to work on over the summer. We've given them different incentives to work on them. We went to Seven Peaks when they finished 100 pages. Caleb just finished his book yesterday. I'm so proud of him. He is so ready for kindergarten already. I can't believe he still has until next August to go to school. He reads most of the books Alex brings home from school. Today I had him read the poems that Alex read when he was in Kindergarten. There were only a few words I had to help Caleb with. He is well on his way.

How Alex Got Hurt

We went to Alex's school for parent/teacher conference today. While we were there Alex wanted to show us how he got hurt on the playground at school. This is the place where he fell and hit his head on the metal right behind his feet.

By the way, Alex is doing really well in school. The woman who does the Spanish testing talked to us for a few minutes and said that Alex has moved up a level in his Spanish comprehension and is right where he should be. He's progressing really well. His teacher, Mrs. "S", said he does great in school. Math is one of his favorite things. He also reads really well.

Making Cookies

Caleb and Leah are always playing in Leah's "kitchen" pretending to make dinner, cakes, cookies, etc. So, I had them put their aprons on and help me in the real kitchen to make real cookies. They love doing this. They alternate putting in ingredients. Caleb's favorite ingredient to add is the eggs. Leah loves to unwrap the butter. Caleb is getting really good at scooping the dough onto the cookie sheet. Leah just likes to eat the dough! They learned that from their mom. I love eating dough and batter of just about anything. The cookies turned out really yummy. Good job Leah and Caleb!

A New Van!

I am so excited about our new van! It's a 2000 Ford Windstar. I know that doesn't sound like a "new" van, but to us it's great. We've been driving a 1987 Bronco II and a 1989 Chevy Astro Van. So, this van is 11 years newer than anything else we've ever owned! Before our Bronco and Astro van we have had a 1989 Chevy Corsica, 1988 Ford Aerostar, and a 1979 Dodge Colt. We feel like we are living in luxury with all of the features this van has.

There is tons of room behind the back seat and the seat moves forward and back to adjust the space as needed.

This is the driver's side. There are sliding doors on both sides! I'm so happy about that. Plus, the sliding door on the passenger side is automatic and can open and shut with a push of a button. How great! No matter how hard my kids have tried with our other vans they can never get the door shut by themselves. Now I can do it with a button!

Also, there are 2 captain chairs for the middle row. This is so nice because our kids will all have their own seat. Hopefully this will eliminate some of the fighting, touching, hitting, and "he's/she's looking at me"! Well, it probably won't solve that last one, but I can always hope.
We've already sold our Bronco II and now we've got our old van listed and hope to sell it soon.

P.S. I will hopefully take Alex in to the doctor tomorrow to get his staples removed. Tomorrow will be the 8th day, and I don't want to wait until Monday. He had to get retake pictures taken today, so I gave him a much needed hair cut yesterday. I couldn't cut around the staples, so he has a long patch of hair in the back of his head that I'm dying to get rid of!

What Happened?!?

Alex's school called Jon around 1pm yesterday and this is the sight that we saw when we picked him up.Alex had fallen off the top of the playground at school after lunch and split the back of his head open. They had him all bandaged up with ice on it and we didn't get a good look at his head until they unwrapped it at the doctor's office. We took him to InstaCare and after 3 hours he had 3 staples in his head and we were finally out of there.

He was so brave at the doctor's office. The only part that hurt was when they were numbing the area so they could clean it and staple it. He didn't even feel the actual staples. I took him to Shopko afterwards so he could pick out a toy for being so brave. He chose a Mars Mission Lego set.

I'm kicking myself for not giving my boys a hair cut this past weekend when I was thinking about it. As you can see from the picture Alex's hair is getting a bit shaggy, and now I have to wait 7-10 days until his staples get removed before I can cut his hair! I'm just glad he's ok. We watched for signs of a concusion through the night and he seems to be doing just fine (besides having a headache and a sore in the back of his head).

Happy Halloween

Here is a picture of Princess Nanny (Sarah), Dorothy (Katie), Bedtime Bear (Leah), Bat (Alex), Spider (Caleb), and Optimus Prime (Braydon).

Alex had a Halloween parade at school today. I took my video camera and got it all on film. After the parade they had a class party. Jon, Caleb, Leah, and I all went to his party. We got to watch him interact with all of his friends. Leah and Caleb had fun playing a game with his class too. We were lucky that Jon's boss let him have a little time away from work to come see the fun Halloween celebration at Alex's school.

After a pizza and breadstick dinner Jon took the kids out trick-or-treating while I stayed at home to hand out candy. We only got 4 doorbell's of kids at our house (and one of those doorbells was my own kids!). They all had so much fun trick-or-treating and got lots of candy!