Merry Christmas Dave

 For Dave's Christmas present I decided he needed a night away!  He has been working like a crazy man since August and needed some time off!  Thanks to his parents who agreed to watch our kids for a night.  We met up with our friends the Pages and were able to go to a BYU basketball game at the Energy Solutions Center.  Our seats were great and the action too!  We were also able to go to dinner and hit the movies! The guys were happy because this left hardly any shopping time!  It was fun to be together.  I sure love Dave and appreciate all he does for me and our family!  Let's just say he is AMAZING!

Random Cade

 

Noah, Jaime, Cade

Cade along with the priests and laurels were able to go to Island Park over Christmas Break to go snowmobiling.  They stayed in cabins and all came back safely!

 Homecoming week at Highschool

This year their school did a lip dub that turned out awesome!

 Cowboy Day

 Cade spent a night working at a Haunted House

Cade is a great kid and brings a lot of happiness to our home.  This past fall I learned a lesson and I guarantee I will never forget it!  

It  was a Saturday morning and all the kids wanted to know their jobs so they could get them done and hurry out with friends.  I told Cade his job was to get rid of the old flowers from my pots and from the front flower beds.  He was also to replant the plant in the backyard that the dog had dug up.  

Just a little background here.  This past summer, after living in our house 10 years, I decided it was up to me to landscape the backyard.  We had a patio poured but that was about it.  I had curbing poured and then went shopping for deals on plants/shrubs, flowers, etc.  I put down ground cover and planted plants and then put decorative rock in the flower beds.  I was pretty proud because it was finally not so ugly!

Well, Cade did his job that Saturday then left for his friends home.  I came outside in the backyard later on that fall day and and stood there shocked!  Tears started coming.  He had pulled out all of my plants/shrubs! At least 300 dollars worth, not to mention all the work!  I called him home from his friends.  I tried to gain control of my feelings.  We got out all the plants/shrubs from the garbage and attempted to replant them.  (Later on our dog ended tearing them all out again).  

It was hard for me to be made at him because he truly thought he was just doing his job.  The front flower beds were cleaned out nicely.  Every year I plant petunia's in the front yard and take them out in the fall when they are dead.  I guess he thought he was going the extra mile and doing the backyard.  

I had to apologize to him because it was all a misunderstanding. I learned I had to explain jobs way more in detail, check on his progress, and not assume he will just understand!

That experience went right along with a talk I heard soon after this incident.  It was in stake conference by Pres. Allen.  He said, "we can't assume our kids will know right and wrong just because they have been attending primary or seminary or going to church.  We have to teach them!" We have to be present.

Brrrr!

 Kierra and Kayla

Our friend Al let us borrow his rhino for a week to pull sleds and tubes around his field.  Cade had a blast driving and sledding with his friends.  The day I went it was so COLD!  It was -4 degrees and hasn't warmed up since!  Some of us were also able to go snowboarding the day after Christmas.  Snow was great.  Cade has a season pass and has been multiple times.  I have only dared let him drive up once so far and that was with me.  It is scary to think he is old enough to drive on icy mountainess roads alone!

 Cade driving rhino

  A couple Ty sayings...

Ty said, "Please can I have a drink?"  Then he quickly said to me, "Does that make you merry Mom?"

Ty is now a sunbeam in primary.  The missionaries were over and I told Ty to tell them he was a sunbeam now.  Instead he told them, "I'm going to be a Sunbeam for Halloween!"

 Cade, Noah, Kole

Gracie and Kayla freezing!

Finally Valerie is up and moving after being sick for a week this Christmas break

Christmas

Acting our our Baby Jesus, Mary and Joseph scene with Ashley as the Donkey.

This year we had a special Christmas Eve.  We had our traditional dinner, scripture story, and PJ's but then we did some deliveries.  We delivered some packages and visited with some people that were all alone on Christmas Eve.  We had no idea they were all alone but felt prompted to go and see them.  Not only did we make their night but they made ours.  I think our kids even caught a little bit of the magic feeling of Christmas that night and realized it is not always about themselves! 

 

This year for our Young Women Christmas night we went to a care center and sang and performed for the members.  I took Ty and Valerie along with me and I was sure glad!  Ty touched the hearts of some of those elderly ladies as well as mine.  He wasn't shy and would go right up to them in their wheelchairs and say Hi.  He particularly liked talking to one lady named Gerdy.  She could only see really close up.  He was at her perfect level.  He taught her how to do knuckles and high fives.  He even tried tickling her once.  We were getting ready to leave when Ty said, "wait we haven't said hello to those two ladies."  He was right, we hadn't made it all the way around the room so we went and talked to them.  When we were leaving to go home one of the ladies wheeled right up to us and said, "please don't go."  It was a touching, sweet night. 

 New PJ's on Christmas Eve

 Beats headphones for Cade and goggles

 Ty was so cute.  He got spider man PJ's and immediately went to the wall thinking he could really climb it!

 Nintendo 3DS for Valerie

 Clothes, Boots, Make up for Ashley

 Ipod Touch and dock for Mikayla

Game on with the Missionaries

 Balance Beam for Hailey

Ipad for Mom

Bigger 4 wheeler for Ty

Grinch Dinner

 

I surprised my family with a GRINCH dinner one night before Christmas.  I got some of the ideas off Pinterest and then the rest from my head.  Of course, I always have to start off the day with invitations delivered to school. I sent Dave a pair of Grinch and Max boxers to wear to the dinner.  Cade got a Grinch tshirt. His invitation said, "Join us for a very GRINCHMAS Dinner tonight.  Enclosed you will find your gear to be the Meister of CHEER!  We had just watched the Grinch together as a family so all the terms were fresh in our minds. All the girls got their invitations and were told to dress up like cindy Lou Hoo.

 Ty helped me to make the GRINCH green cookies.

 Our menu consisted of:

Roast BEAST (roasted chicken)

Who-Hash (potato hashbrown soup)

Who-pudding (rice pudding)

GRINCHY green beans

GRINCH green cookies

GREEN Frape

 Love my little dog/reindeer Max

Lights!

Our yearly tradition is about to come to an end.  Each year we go to Rock Creek and see this house with a whole ton of lights and a camel to feed while driking our packed hot chocolate. This couple has been doing this for over 20 years and are calling it quits.  People come from all over to see this house and huge yard.  We will miss it but are glad for the memories it has provided our family.

The camel was huge and scared Ty.  Valerie and Hailey liked feeding him carrots!