Merry Christmas Everyone!

I hope everyone had a great Christmas. We sure did. We saw Santa a couple times before Christmas and Tate kept telling us that Santa was going to bring him a 4-wheeler for Christmas. Well Santa didn't bring him a 4-wheeler, he brought him an Escalade with a working radio. He was so excited. Allie didn't really get the whole unwrapping part, but she loved getting the presents. We are up in Roy right now at my parents house. Some how we made it through the snowy weather. We've had a great Christmas season and I'm sad to see it end.

I did the Forgotten Carols and got an acting part (ooh..aah) okay so I was just a busy shop-a-holic who once I heard the flute being played (by Michael McClean) I froze and starred into the distance at which time I remembered the true meaning of Christmas:) And in the second scene I was part of a "bad sounding" caroler group. Then I sang in the real choir. It was sooo fun.

Then on Friday I went and jammed with a local band (that has opened for SheDaisy before) at the Bloomington Country club. They asked me to come and we'd just do some traditional Christmas music...yeah it was nice when they did a song I knew. I've never sang in front of a band before so the first few songs were a little rough, but once I got the hang of it, Alex said we sounded great.

Then I had another concert on Saturday night with Lieto! and again on Sunday in church (and I had to do the sharing time in primary). Unfortunately for me Alex had taken a shift at the station on Saturday night through to Sunday night because everyone else was out of town for Christmas. Lucky for me, my kids did great being passed around to kind ward members while I was busy doing all that stuff.

This week Tate gets to go skiing for the first time and we're excited for our first ski trip of the season.

FYI:

Hey I just wanted to let everyone know about all the festive stuff I'm going to be doing this week and invite any and all to attend. I'll be singing in the choir for the "Forgotten Carols" on Dec. 17th and 18th at Dixie State (tickets are available through Dixie State ticket office). And then on the 20th at 7:00 p.m. at Pine View High school I'll be singing in a free concert with the choir Lieto! Merry Christmas everyone hope to see some of you there.

Happy Birthday Tayden!

Tayden turned 4 on Sunday November 30th. I can't believe my baby is 4. Here are some fun pictures of my tater bug to show just how much he's grown and changed over the past four years.

Giving Thanks

I know that it's still two weeks till Thanksgiving, but I just have to give a little thanks. Today we went to the park near our house. Tate just amazes me more and more everyday. He and Alex were playing catch and he was throwing that ball good and trying his best to catch it. He's also suddenly come out of his shell. He used to be terrified of going fast or high. Now he suddenly has courage to go down the "big" slide or swing "super high" on the swings. And he rides his bike like he's been doing it for months. He's also so sweet to his sister. He protects her and helps her and (most of the time) they get along like the very best of friends. It's just the little things he does; like when he says it's okay that I still call him baby doll even though he's not a baby. Or when he says that he's a volunteer firefighter just like dad and that when he gets big he's going to drive the fire truck. There are a million other things I could write. He's getting so big and not so much my baby any more. I told him tonight though, that even though he's a big boy now that he'll always be my baby. And my Allie it so sweet. She has such a funny personality. She can hold her own, and in a neighborhood full of little boys it's a good thing. She loves playing with whatever Tate is playing with, but the one girlly thing that she loves is her baby dolls. She steals the hand towel off the oven door and wraps her baby in it while she rocks her and pats her back. She loves to come up behind me or Alex when we're down on the floor and give us a hug. And she'll rub her bunnies ears on my check because that's what she loves to do with her bunny. If you ask her "where's you're smile?" she'll wrickle her nose and squint her eyes shut and show all seven teeth in the funny smile ever. She loves having all of us close together and wrestling with her brother. She's growing up so fast though. The other day she had a sucker out of her halloween bucket and after a little while I didn't see her with it any more so I asked where is was and she walked me to the garbage and showed my her sucker stick in the garbage and then looked at me like "duh, mom it's where it's suppose to be". I love both my kids so much. It makes me want to have 10 more just like them (no I'm not pregnant nor am I trying to get pregnant yet). I am so thankfull for my children and my husband and so many other things that I could never name all of them. I am so blessed!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

We had so much fun for Halloween this year. We all got into it way more than usual, but who could blame us when there are about 200 kids in our neighborhood. The anticipation just kind of rubs off on you. I have to say that some of the parents had better costums than their kids. Our manager Dan was a perfect Nacho Lebre. It was hilarious. So of course we had to have good costumes too. Tate was a firefighter. He was going to be spiderman, but after we bought the costum I realized that every other kid in the neighborhood would be spiderman too so we got him a firefighter costum (it is just like Alex's turnouts only smaller). So Tate told Alex that he had to be a firefighter with him. Allie was a fairy princess. I was going to just be doctor or something and put on my old scrubs, but when I saw how decked out all the other parent were getting I dug through my old dresses and costums from plays and stuff and found my Miss Roy pagent talent dress. I sang a opera piece so I had my mom make a dress to fit. And yes I know you all will hate that I fit into a dress from high school after having two kids, but it still fit and I went as a princess so me and Allie would match. Aren't we a cute family. This was by far the funnest halloween since I was a kid. (P.S. Thanks Natasha for taking the pictures. That's her cute little girl with Tate and Allie).

He's riding a 2-wheeler!

Last week Tate saw one of his best buddies, Mason asking his Mom to take off is training wheels. So of course, Tate had to get his off too. At first he just wanted to sit on his bike and didn't want any help or suggestions on how to ride it without training wheels, but by the next day he was starting, riding, turning and stopping all by himself. Now he rides his bike up and down the street from dawn until dusk. He's only 3! Ok, ok, he'll be four in a month, but still I am so impressed that he had the dedication to keep trying and the desire to try in the first place. Love you Tate! Good job buddy!

Same Ole' Same Ole'

Well life has just been kind of plugging along. Alex is in school full time and volunteers at the firestation 4 shifts a month and trades every morning. He's pretty everywhere all the time, but surprisingly still home a lot. I like that. The kids are just so much fun. Tate cracks me up. He says the funniest things sometimes. Whenever he drops or loses something he says "oh snap". It so cute. He loves preschool. He walks around the house singing the ABC song and some bubblegum song. He has lots of buddies to play with and would prefer to just be outside all the time with friends. But, even when he's playing with his friends he's always looking out for Allie. They have become best friends. Allie's finally figuring out how to play with Tate and the other night they were running around the house laughing their heads off and then standing on their heads or doing summersalts (or at least Tate would try to make Allie do a summersalt) It took me almost an hour to get them in bed. They were so funny. Allie is getting more fun everyday. Her personality just about kills me. She may be miss drama queen, but she also knows how to be the sweatest thing in the world too. She's talking so much more everyday. And it's not like she says a new word or something. She'll just talk. She jabbers all the time and it used to just be baby jibberish, but now I'll suddenly understand an entire phrase in the middle of the jibberish. She says thank you the best though. As for me, I got called to be the second couselor in the Primary. I really like it so far. My sister-in-law, Liz, is taking a bunch of pictures of our family for her photography class she's taking this semester at Dixie so I'm excited to get them back and post some.