Christmas in Feb.???

OK, OK, I know that it's Feb., but I've had a really hard time finding the time and energy to blog lately. Plus we got a new camera and network storage device, so I don't know how to get the pictures off the new camera and onto the new storage thing. I'll have to have Travis show me so I can post pics of Bryson's birthday next.

Anyway, here's a snapshot of our Christmas.

What silly gooses (geese?)!
We were lucky enough to have Santa come to our ward party. Here are the kids telling him what they want.


Ally was terrified of Santa, but saw the candy cane the kids got and wanted one too. This was her "brave" attempt at seeing Santa. At least she wasn't crying, but there was no way she was going any closer either. Maybe next year.

My little rag-a-muffin and her haul. She was so thrilled that Santa brought her baby doll stuff like she wanted!
Bryson was excited to have his very own MP3 player, but pretty excited about the bike too! He really needed it!
Jacob was really excited about his new golf clubs to get to go golfing w/ his dad!
Maddy was excited about her golf clubs too, but I think she liked the zhu zhu pets the best since that's about as close to a real pet as she's going to get. (Travis is definitely not a pet person.)

Well that was a quick catch up of our Christmas, the healthy part anyway. We had a bout of pink eye infect Jacob, Bryson, Ally and myself, but at least we were all healthy on Christmas. We were lucky to have my mom w/ us for Christmas too. I wanted to post pics of her, but they're on the new camera. Maybe tomorrow.

Jacob's Special Day

Jacob wanted to play laser tag for his special day, so we went to a family fun place here. Here we are before we left.

We started out with some mini-golf. Jacob beat me by 8 strokes! He even got a hole in one!
We had fun squirting each other with the bumper boats, but once was enough for me. Jacob rode it 3 times throughout the day.
He was pretty wet every time!
Jacob loved driving the go carts. They had some bigger ones, but he wasn't tall enough to drive those by himself, so since I was driving I couldn't get any pictures.

I wish this picture was more clear because I love his face! Jacob is actually a really good driver and avoided several accidents caused by less skilled drivers.

I couldn't get any pictures of laser tag because it was dark and I gave a worker my purse to stow away until it was over. Jacob had a BLAST with laser tag and would do it again in a heart beat. Out of 25 people he came in 5th! I was more like 15th. He definitely showed me up!

When we were done playing, we went out to dinner at IHOP. Breakfast for dinner is one of Jacob's favorite dinners. The only bad part was that because he went on the bumper boats one last time right before we left, he was a little cold in the restaurant. I guess that's what happens when you're soaked.

Thanks for a super fun day Jacob!!!

Halloween

We have found that it is much easier for the kids to paint pumpkins rather than carve them, plus they last better.

Here is Ally's pumpkin that is just the right size for her. The problem with a pumpkin that is just the right size is that she can pick it up and ended up dropping it the next day and breaking off the kitty ears much to her disappointment. At least it didn't break open!

Here is Bryson's pumpkin and his silly face to match.
Jacob didn't use as many stick in pieces, but made good use of the paint. He really liked how scary it turned out.
Maddy really wanted a pumpkin w/ a unique characteristic. This one had a crease that she turned into his mouth. She decided to make him a zombie that she loving named "Dead Larry". She cracks me up!

Here are all the kids getting ready to go Trick-or-Treating. Ally was Tinkerbell, Jacob was a ninja again, this time red (his favorite color), Bryson wanted to be an alien, and Maddy was an M&M (she was a green one when she was little).

Here they are heading out. Too much fun!

The kids had a great time! Hope you did too!

Maddy's Special Day

I can't seem to keep up with my life, especially blogging! I've been a total slacker so the next few posts will document the fun things we've been up to in the last month.

Last year Travis took everyone out for their very own special day. It was so much fun that we decided to alternate doing it with the kids. He gets the even years and I get the odd years. In October Maddy chose to go to Disney on Ice again. Last year was HS musical and this year it was a combination of Cars, Lion King, Little Mermaid and Tinkerbell.

Here we are before we left.

Before the show.
Mickey and Minnie kicked off the show.
It was pretty cool to see all the "Cars" driving around on the ice.

Next was Little Mermaid. My favorite part was Ursula, but I didn't get a good picture. She had a pretty big blow up costume on that I'm sure made it difficult to skate in, but looked cool.

The Lion King was pretty amazing. The costumes were awesome! I couldn't believe that the Pumba skater was skating on all fours and even did some jumps!

Here is Maddy during the intermission w/ her souvenir lightning bug from Tinkerbell.

Maddy still enjoys Tinkerbell and this was her favorite part of the show. I loved how they were able to make Tinkerbell's tinker-fairy friend's eyes look huge like in the movie.

Maddy enjoyed seeing queen Clarion floating around. The picture isn't the best because I had to take it before they shined the spotlight on her to make her glow or it wouldn't have come out at all.

Tinkerbell was a really good skater!

Maddy and I went out to dinner afterwards and did a little shopping. It was a really fun day! Thanks for spending it with me Maddy!

Maddy's Birthday

Happy 11th Birthday Maddy! (A little late!)

Here is Maddy before school on her birthday. She wore the pin all day, but not the hat. ;)

My kids aren't big cake eaters, so for Maddy's birthday we got a yummy fruit tart. She LOVES fruit and LOVED her tart!
Maddy's birthday was on a Tues., which is a SUPER BUSY day for our family. So we celebrated her birthday the next day. Here she is opening presents.

Thanks Grandma and Grandpa for the money, earrings, and lip gloss. She loves them!

Not sure why this picture turned out so blurry, but it's the only one we had of the skirt that her Grandma made her. She loves the outfit! Thanks mom!
From all of us, Maddy got a "wiggle racer". This one is actually called a plasma car. She has been asking for one for a long time and was really excited!

Wait a minute ... Who's birthday present is this again?

Maddy was very generous and let everyone have rides on her new wiggle racer. For some reason we didn't get a picture of Jacob on it. Maybe he was too fast! ;)

Even Travis and I can ride it! :D

Maddy chose to go to a funny dinner theater for her birthday. All the kids had a GREAT time. They were laughing so hard that they were crying. The actors were great and incorporated the kids into part of the play when they were in the audience. It was really fun!

Thanks for sharing your birthday with us Maddy! We all had a great time and can't believe how old you are! You are such a sweet and responsible girl and we love you very much!

The rest of Jacob's birthday

We opened all the family presents after dinner. This is what Maddy and Ally gave Jacob.

Bryson got him a new Lego Star Wars ship.

My mom gives the kids scriptures when they turn 8. Jacob thought his were cool because they have "gold" pages! (Maddy's are silver and for some reason he thinks gold is way better.)

He loves his shirts from Travis's parents!

He loves his Hot Wheels track too. What could be better than crashing cars?!
He's really wanted an MP3 player and has been using Maddy's old pink MP3 player that is broken. It would only play through the list of songs, you couldn't skip through or pick songs and then when it played through the list you had to remove the songs and reload them - plus it was pink! He is soooooo excited to have his own new RED MP3 player. This boy LOVES music!
Here is Ally getting ready to play dart tag. Silly girl!
Jacob also got to have his special bath in our bath tub. The kids think it's great how deep it is and love all the bubbles!
All in all it was a really fun birthday! We love you Jacob and hope you had as much fun as we did celebrating with you!