Happy B-day Gabe!

Another birthday in the house. Gabe is turning 8 years old today. He has been counting down the days now for a few months. He is so dang cute! Everyday he talks about getting baptized and that he can't wait to get his own set of scriptures. I can't believe it has been 8 years! Again, I know I say this all the time, but I don't know where the time goes. The kids grow up too fast!

A few facts about Gabe:

• He likes to be called G-Man
• He is very caring and concerned about others
• He loves to play out in the dirt
• He is very good at his school work, he gets it done as soon as he gets home from school without me asking him to.
• He loves to ride bikes and race BMX
• He is a good swimmer
• He loves to dance crazy! Not a trained dancer, just a crazy dancer
• He loves his family
• He loves church and has a testimony of the gospel
• He is very creative
• He loves Legos

I could go on and on but I won't. I just want him to know how much we love and appreciate him. I am so glad that he is part of our family and I love him sooooooooo much!

Happy Birthday G-Man!!!

Happy Birthday Eli or Enoch or Nicholas!

Today is Eli's 6th birthday! Wow I can't believe my baby is 6. Where does the time go? We had a great but busy day today. We decided to head to Vernal because Troy had to finish up a job and the kids are off-track. We thought it would be a fun, but quick, trip. Down and back in a day. So for Eli's birthday we drove all day. No really, we had a great time (pictures to follow in a couple days).

I just wanted to take a minute and wish Eli a Happy Birthday and to let him know how much we love him. He is such a sweet and funny kid, all at the same time. I honestly don't know what I am going to do without him next year when he starts first grade. I love having the afternoons with him, just the two of us.

So, on our way to Vernal today we talked about the day I had Eli. Every...last...detail. The kids wanted to know everything. Since we had a 3-hour drive, we had plenty of time to cover everything. We told Eli that we didn't know if he was going to be a girl or boy, so we didn't even have a name picked out for him. We told him some of the options and he decided that we should have named him Enoch. Then, later on this evening, Gabe called him "Ridiculous Nicholas", so then Eli wanted to be named Nicholas.

So...whoever he is right now, Happy Birthday! We love you and hope you had a wonderful 6th birthday!

Off-Track Education...

We went to the zoo yesterday. I love the zoo in the winter! The animals are more active and there are less people. I feel like I don't have to watch my kids so close because I can always see them. I don't lose them amongst the crowds! Yesterday, the animals were way more active, especially the Penguins. The kids sat and watched the penguins for about 15 minutes just wondering what they were doing inside that rock! They were making all sorts of noises...and there was a line outside waiting for their turn. Our kids just sat and watched and wondered. Eli said..."Maybe,....they are having a baby?" I don't think they were having a baby right then, but maybe in the spring?!? (I don't know how long the gestation of a penguin is?)

Here are the penguins lining up for their turn!



Kids attending class.....

Anyway, it was a good day at the zoo with some education too!

Oops!

My kids have been off track for a couple weeks now. It seems like I am always trying to find something to do to keep them busy. We do a lot of fun things, aquarium, dollar movie, play with cousins and friends, parks etc. etc. One of the first days they were off track we went to visit Troy at work. We planned to go to lunch but Troy had to pour a little bit of concrete first. We met him at the job and watched him smooth out the concrete. It was just a little ring around a man-hole cover in a parking lot. Not big, we didn't have to wait long so we just watched. My boys love things like that! Madison, not so much. She was ready to eat and waiting in the car.

Finally, it was time to get in the car. Troy was done and we were ready to eat. Eli headed to the car and Oooops...

We had to wait a few extra minutes while Troy smoothed out the concrete again! We did eventually get to eat lunch with dad, that was all we wanted!

Beeep!

Please leave a message after the tone.....

I have been a little preoccupied lately. Troy was sick all last week (and he is a miserable sick person, poor thing, he was sooo sick). Madison and I got it this week (sorry, Keli, we spread it to Emma too). We have also had science projects, Relief Society visits, family get togethers and lots of homework!

Hang on, I might be back soon!

Here is just a funny video to keep you coming back. We went sledding with Heidi and Jason and kids on New Years day. Troy, Jason and Jamison went down together.

Notice, Jason is holding Troys legs. This is when I noticed that somethings never change!

Never mind, the video won't play so you will just have to use your imagination!

**stupid thing, now it's working! Does it usually take 24 hours for videos to upload?

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Since I haven't posted for so long, I should probably just get it all in. So here are a few pics from the Holidays.

Here are the kids at Grandmas house on Christmas Eve. They all got their new PJ's and were ready for Christmas.

Madison got this cool watch that Aunt Jill and Gracie made. She loves it...

Eli wanted a stop sign...don't ask me why. However, it has alread come in handy. He took it to Classic skating and held it out to the people who were skating on the oval track. He thought that was pretty funny.

Gabe got the legos he wanted. He put that whole crane together in just one day.

We had a great Christmas. We stayed busy with lots of family and friends. Thanks to Jill and Meg, we had the traditional breakfast and for lunch, ham and potatoes, and lots of other scrumptious food. I think we ate all day long. The best part of Christmas was that we stayed in our pajamas all day. And, that the Johnsons hung out with us all day. Thanks guys!

The other best part of the day was the gift that Jill gave us. She drew both of our names. So she gave us tickets to the Bon Jovi concert in Vegas. (Is it just me or does everybody think John Bon Jovi is a good looking guy? Even Troy thinks he is.) And, the best part is it comes with babysitting. We get to go spend a weekend in Vegas, how fun is that!

For New Years Eve, we spent the night with Heidi and Jason Rich. I mean, we actually spent the night with them. They only live half an hour away, but we had a sleep over so we wouldn't have to drive home. It was pretty entertaining. Here are a few pics from that night...

The kids watched a 3D movie. I think it was Monsters vs. Aliens, I don't remember!

Here are the kids ready to go make some noise... 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.....

Here is Madison and Eli with the silly string. We had silly string and cow bells and pots and pans and ...lots of noisy and messy things.

Eli wasn't so sure about the silly string. He liked spraying the others but he didn't like getting sprayed.

Happy New Years, Heidi! Thanks for letting us crash your party!

Halloween Madness

Here are a few pics from Halloween. Costumes weren't great but the kids were happy and had a fun time. It's hard to get excited about costumes when the kids are off-track for Halloween. Actually, Madison and Gabe just wanted to wear their costumes from last year so I was pretty happy about that.

Here are the pumpkins we carved this year. I hate carving pumpkins! Can I just get that out there. Honestly, this year my kids fought and fought about who got to dig the guts out and who got to use the spoon....Finally, I just had to kick them out and finish it myself. I was so glad when they were done. And, if I do say so myself, I think they turned out pretty good!

I saw this idea on someones blog, so I stole it. I thought it was really cute so we got Troys drill and attached a hole saw to it. That was fun except my kids tried the drill and they did it so fast that the pumpkin guts went everywhere!

And, last but not least, the fantastic costumes you have been waiting for. Eli was Batman, Madison was a baby and Gabe a skeleton. Gabe looked better with his mask but he hated wearing it.


Hope you all had a great halloween...