Santa Clause is Coming to Town

We had our ward Christmas party on Thursday night. Santa was there too! We had a yummy dinner, funny programs/skits, games and some good company. But my personal favorite was the primary kids singing and acting out the nativity scene. Jacob didn't know the words to the song, so he just opened his mouth and pretended to sing. I couldn't stop laughing. I made Randy pull out the camera so he could capture the hilariousness of it all. We barely got the video before they were done singing. Lily followed the crowd onto the stage too. If her brothers are there, she should be to right? What a little cutie.


Seeing Santa was especially fun for the kids. My boys have always been too nervous to sit on Santa's lap, so this year, I prepped them before we actually saw him. I got them all excited about it and none of them (including Lily) had much of a problem sitting with Santa.
Tyler sat on Santa's lap first. He asked him for a motor scooter and a Nintendo DS. He also wants Kinect, and ipod touch, and a pillow pet. We'll see if Santa is feeling extra generous this year and gives him what he wants. Talk about expensive toys!


Lily got to see her big brother Tyler on Santa's lap and also saw that he gave Tyler some candy when he was done. She pushed Jake out of the way and climbed right up into Santa's outstretched arms. It seems she will do most anything for candy. She seemed right at home in his lap. Now THAT'S a first for our family. Jakey was a little bit nervous as you can see, but he wanted to tell Santa that he wanted a scooter for Christmas. He never once looked at Santa, and I never actually heard him say anything. It was pretty funny. He was very excited for the candy cane and chocolate he received when he was done.

Ahhh...that's better.

The new TV is mounted on the wall, no cords are hanging down, and best of all, the kids can't reach it!

This isn't just a Televison..

it's amazavision! Seriously, Our new TV is sweet. It's kind of like when we got our new desktop computer, we had been using the old desktop for so long, we had no idea what we were missing. Apparently, we were missing a lot. Randy bought us a new TV for Christmas this year. Our old one we bought used from my is sister for 80 bucks about 6 years ago. It was getting so that in order to hear it at all, you had to turn it up all the way. Here is a photo of our new Panasonic plasma screen 50 inch TV. I should have cleaned up a bit before I took the picture, but I didn't. you can see our old TV on the side of our entertainment unit. We love everything about it so far...except for the fact that Jacob likes to touch it. He says he wont, but then the next thing you know, he does it again. So, the wall mount is ordered and on it's way from amazon.com. That will solve the problem right?Here's the little trouble maker by the TV. This is what you get when you tell him you are going to take a picture of him. yes, I took this the same night as the last post. That's why he is wearing the same clothes.

I have a feeling I'm going to watch more TV than I used to...which really wasn't much...this can't be good. plus, you can hook up the Internet to it, Netflix, etc. I'll let you know when I need an intervention.

falalalala..lalalala

Tis the season for decorating. We had the kids work on the tree yesterday, and then Jake and I finished it up this evening.

what a cutie. I cut his hair this morning and now he looks way older to me.

the tree

The room. I told Jake to move so I could see the tree. His solution was to lay down low. :) Maybe sometime soon it will be warm enough to decorate the outside of the house. 20 degrees just isn't good enough for us.

Winter Recital

Tyler receiving his certificate from his teacher Rachelle.

all the kids who played in the recital

Tyler

This is what happens when you take advantage of Cyber Monday

you become a neglectful parent. Good thing my shopping is done and I can focus on more important things/people.

Cyber Monday Rocks!

I still love love love Cyber Monday. I bought almost all of our Christmas presents this morning. Some of which had deep discounts. I have been price matching all weekend and figuring out exactly what I want to buy and then I put the items in my cart on Amazon.com. This morning I found that most of the items in my cart had been discounted on the already low prices. Sweet. Plus, now we get to be more excited when they are delivered directly to our house and I don't have to go out in the cold or the crowds! YAY!! Click on it if you would like to read my SUPER AMAZING POEM about Cyber Monday that I wrote last year.

Teeth, Toes, Turkey and Traveling

We had a great Thanksgiving dinner at my parents house yesterday. Good food and good company are always a fun combination. I didn't take any pictures though. While at my parents house, Randy was walking down the stairs while skyping with his sister and he totally slipped and fell down the stairs and hit his foot on the wall at the bottom. he was limping the rest of the night, so I knew something was wrong for sure. Randy is pretty tough and doesn't ever complain about physical ailments. I bet it was pretty funny to Paige, who got a front seat to see the whole thing on skype.

Randy also went out at 11:00 PM to start our black Friday shopping that started at midnight. He has the shopping down to a science. It is seriously so funny to hear the stories he tells. And the way he gets the items he wants is hilarious. Just ask him to tell you about black Friday tampons and you won't regret it. He got home from Wal-Mart with a whole bunch of stuff at about 2:45am and then decided to stay up till 5am to hit The Home Depot and sears. He is a WONDERFUL husband to brave the crowds and cold (about 8 degrees outside). THANK YOU RANDY!!! I feel much more prepared for Christmas now.

In other news, Tyler lost his first tooth this morning! He will be seven years old in less than a month. He was feeling pretty left out as his friends and cousins were all losing their teeth and he wasn't. The dentist told us it was unusual for him to lose the side front tooth first. I pulled it out for him because he kept complaining about how much it hurt and it was so loose I said "just let me tug on it once and if it doesn't come out, I won't do it again" So I pulled once and it came out. He got mad at me because he said it hurt and then I asked him "Is your tooth still there?" and he said "yeah." then I said "It can't be there, because it's in my hand. He was really surprised. It bled a lot though and I felt bad for him. I'm not sure what the going rate is for teeth these days. It has been a while since the tooth fairy has visited me, and I used to get 25cents for my teeth. I figure she should bring a dollar? I guess we will see tonight if I'm right.

We went to my little brother Ben's basketball game today at UVU. We attended the first game, but I forgot my camera that night. Ben is in the starting lineup and he plays really well; especially since it is his first year in college.

He fits in better with the college crowd than he did with his high school team. at 6'10" he still stands apart, but not as much as he used to.

I couldn't really get good pictures of him on the court. luckily he got to sit on the bench some. They were wasting the other team and the coach put in the second string.

Tyler "high fiving" the wolverine mascot.
Jake informed me at the last game that this was not, however a wolverine. He said that wolverine has metal coming out of his hands and that this was clearly a "bear". Obviously, this was my mistake. :)

The back of Grandma, Lily, and Papa's heads. Awesome.



This is Jacob's favorite spot of course.

My sister Michelle and her baby Sarah

Lily wasn't thrilled about taking this picture.

This is what Randy's foot/toe look like today. We're pretty sure he broke that middle toe. poor Randy. I hope it feels better soon.

I think that pretty much covers everything for the last two days. Happy Thanksgiving!

Love

Don't they just make you want to snuggle, tickle, giggle and hug them?!? I sure love these kiddos. Don't ask me how I got them all to smile, stand next to each other and look at the camera at the same time. For every 40 pictures taken, you are bound to get ONE that works.

Sometimes the more interesting pictures are the ones that don't work. Here are some of the MANY that didn't work.

I like free stuff

What can I say, I'm a sucker for "free" things. Shutterfly.com is a website I use regularly to make hardbound books and things to keep as mementos for our family.They are giving away 50 free holiday cards if I write about them on my little ol' blog. Yeah, you read that right...50 FREE CARDS! Pretty sweet deal.I personally like/use shutterfly for their hardbound books that you can see here I have made a cruise book, a kindergarten yearbook, a family abc book, etc. The kids love looking at these books all the time. I use them in church as quiet books as well. I also have a poster hanging on the boys' wall that I made at shutterfly. There Christmas cards are pretty cute. These are some of the holiday cards they have online that I like the best:
http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/cards-stationery/holly-frame-christmas-5x7-folded-card?sortType=1&storeNode=93496

http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/cards-stationery/retro-kaleidoscope-holiday-card-5x7-flat?sortType=1&storeNode=93496

http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/cards-stationery/family-wall-red-christmas-card-5x7-flat?sortType=1&storeNode=93496

they are really cool right? They have some great designs. I'm not sure which design I will use for my cards, but I can't go wrong with any of them.
Anyway, if you want to check out this sweet deal yourself and write on your blog, you can go to this link and do it for yourself. Spread the news and get some free stuff.