Christmas 2011

Christmas is always a little crazy around our house but this year it was double the fun because Taylor got admitted to the hospital on Christmas Eve for pneumonia.  Her asthma was flaring up and we were doing breathing treatments at home but nothing seemed to be working so Jason took her to the Quick Care and they said she was so sick that she had to take an ambulance to the hospital.  I ran down there with a brother from our ward and they gave her a blessing before her ambulance ride.  They let me hold her in the ambulance so she wasn't very afraid and they didn't have the sirens blaring so that was nice.  She was so exhausted from having an IV put in her hand at the Quick Care that she slept the whole ride.  When we got to the hospital they could not get her oxygen levels to stay up so they said she had to stay overnight.  Jason came home to do the Christmas Eve things with the family and I stayed overnight with Taylor (one of the longest nights ever!)  We shared our room with a brand new baby who had to have surgery in the morning and was not allowed to eat.  Awful night!!  The only good thing about spending Christmas in the hospital was in the morning the hospital staff brought Taylor the hugest bag of presents you've ever seen!  She was in heaven, she was so worried about Santa finding her in the hospital, it was really cute.

 I always go a little over board with the Christmas presents and this year was no exception.  I had been buying presents all year and had them all wrapped in August when the kids went to visit Grandma and Grandpa.  Next year I am seriously considering the 3 gift limit.  It's sad when kids get bored of opening presents!

 I found this lego police space ship for Tyson, he loved it!

 Hayden loved her new baby dolls and Taylor's unicorn pillow pet, she will have nothing to do with the pillow pet we bought her.  What's wrong with lady bugs, I ask you?

 Mark gets a little too excited on Christmas and has to open every gift as soon as possible.

 Darrell on the other hand is as slow as a turtle and will start opening other people's presents and gets just as excited over the kids presents as his own.

 Have I mentioned how girly this girl is?  She loved all the nail polish, chapstick and hair bows she got.

 After opening presents Jason and I passed out while the kids trashed the house with their new presents.  Jason was running on 3 hours of sleep and I was running on maybe an hour.

After we got up and threw something together for Christmas dinner I helped Tyson put together his space ship.  6 bags of legos and 3 books!  It was a monster but well worth it, just look at that face!

Christmas fun

Christmas pictures are always a holiday tradition for our family.  Never fun and always ends with cursing (usually by me)  This year I believe I finally broke down and was yelling I don't want any of you in a picture!!  Here I am yelling at Jason because he is smiling at the camera even though you can clearly see the kids are crazy.

 We even tried to do a "silly" picture and we couldn't even get that right!

 Taylor needed to burst out of her spot right before the timer went off.

 Next year if you only get a card with no picture you will know I finally gave up :)

 We are "real" tree people.  I have no problem with fake trees, I have no problem with real trees.  I'm just putting it out there that we have decided the best thing for our family is real trees.  It's a personal preference, please keep your "tree murderer" comments to yourself. 

 We love going to the lot and picking just the right tree.  We have to inspect it from every angle!

 Taylor also had a Christmas party with her preschool class.  They decorated gingerbread houses.

 Isn't she darling with her Santa earrings?

 The kids also made reindeer candy canes.  Our little parties are always so much fun and we are having the best time with Taylor's preschool.

 Tyson had a school Christmas program.  We really love his school and are having a lot of fun with all of their fun activities.

 Tyson is usually pretty shy but after going to Mrs Aubrey's preschool last year he was all ready for his kindergarten program :)

 We got cookies from our favorite Bountiful Baskets.  The kids are becoming quite the little professional cookie decoraters!

The Elf

This Christmas I had gotten so many fun crafts and activities for the kids to do that we had our elf come to visit us on December 1st.  Every morning he was in a new place and brought something for the kids to do.  Moon dough, always a favorite.

Frank, the elf hiding on a shelf.

The kids love to paint so we had quite a few painting projects.

 This was one of our favorites, you plant grass in Santa's head and then it looks like his hair is growing.  The kids loved checking their Santa each morning to see who's Santa was winning the hair growth race.

More painting

 This was also a fun new toy.  I found these washable frogs and the kids loved coloring on a real toy.  Hayden, however has now started coloring everything, I blame the frogs!

We decorated these snowflakes with glitter and hung them in our kitchen windows, I loved pulling up to the house and seeing all the kids creative work.

Hayden was hit or miss on the crafts, she did love painting though (she's in the right family!)  Here she is painting a Charlie Brown scene.

Frank, the elf, only had to stay away one night because the kids were naughty.  It gets to be a little much every morning to find the elf new spots to hide and get their crafts done each day but the kids are only going to be this little and this fun one time.  Soon enough all these fun crafts and activities are going to be lame, so I am milking it while I can!!!

Thanksgiving

I finally got  a new computer and am playing catch up :)  For Thanksgiving we had a really fun party for Taylor's preschool.  The kids shook these jars of cream until they turned into butter.  So fun and it actually worked!  We read stories and saw pictures of Plymouth Rock (which is kind of teeny and a bit of a let down), and pictures of the Mayflower.

The girls made these darling hats and the boys had black hats with buckles on them.  This is the only time Taylor would wear it.  She is such a stinker.

 Then they played pin the tail on the turkey.  Taylor would only watch (insert sigh here).  Some people's children!

 For Thanksgiving we went to Jason's Grandma's house in Cedar City.  Thanksgiving is a hard holiday for me.  It's hard to be the mother in your own home who cooks every meal and then for one day of the year you go to visit family and then you're the "kids" who have to sit by while the older people cook.  So I of course decided to wrestle with the kids while waiting for dinner to be ready :)

 Here is the very long table we all chowed down at.

 After dinner the kids had to get in their exercise.  Grandma Great has a huge hill right outside her front door and the kids love to run all over it.  Thankfully this year it wasn't covered in snow!

 Hayden had to get in her Grandpa time before we left for home.  She loves her Grandpa and Grandma and always is pretending to talk to them on her play phones.

It was a fun, quick trip.  We are so thankful for all of our family near and far :)

Tyson's 6th B-day

My baby boy turned 6 in November! Where has the time gone?!?

 This year I was all about making it easy,  so we went to McDonalds.  They did the cake, the games, the food and a little toy for each kid.  It can't get much easier than that!  We invited tons of boys and let them go hog wild, it was super fun!

 Here they are playing Simon Says or picking their noses, you be the judge :)

 Tyson had an "incident" the week before his birthday which involved sqwinkies and an apology letter to one of his friends.  Needless to say he was very happy to finally own his own sqwinkies.

 He had also be begging for this dang toy for months.  Don't you just love his face?  He was over the moon to get it for his birthday.  (Thanks, Owen!)

Guarding said toy from the others.  We put the Zombie lab together and mixed up a few things and can I tell you that most of the mixtures went down the drain.  Nasty stuff that he took one taste of and almost puked.  Kids!!!

At 6: Tyson loves to ride his bike which no longer has training wheels
          Loves Wild Krats and learning all about wild animals
          Is not a morning person and constantly fights waking up and going to school
          Loves Legos and will do almost anything if you dangle a lego set in front of him (we are now  working on our list of 25 sight words)
          Is Mommy's biggest helper, but does not do diapers :)
          Still hates going to church but once there is fine
          Is very artistic, he loves to paint, color, or make crafts (manly crafts)
          Right now he wants to be a solider when he grows up
We are so happy to have Tyson in our family, he is such a good big brother to his sisters.  He has a caring heart and is always willing to help others.  My favorite part of the day is when he prays at dinner time and asks that we can all be a good family.  We love you Tyson!!!!
         

It's a... another girl!!!!

We went to our ultrasound last week and found out that we are adding another baby girl to our family.  We are super excited and really surprised.  We all were thinking that we would have a boy but Taylor refused to even think of having another boy in the house.  One brother is plenty for that girl.  Tyson was a little disappointed but we told the kids that we are going to Disneyland to celebrate that our baby is healthy and well.  All disappointment or surprise is gone with plans for Disneyland! 

Yeah for #4

Surprise!!!  We are adding another baby to our family!!!!

We are super excited to welcome baby #4 in May 2012.  The kids are really hoping for a boy but we will be glad for a girl as well.  Well...probably not Tyson, I asked him what he would do if the baby was a girl and he said, quote unquote, "I'd freak my brains out!"  (Can't you just feel the love he has for his sisters?)  Taylor is just so happy to be able to hold a baby soon, she can't stand it.  Hayden fights her all the time when she tries to hold her like a baby :)  Hayden is crazy about babies and I hope she will be a gentle big sister, she is the bruiser of the nursery and the terrorizer of our long suffering dog.  Fingers crossed!  We are officially due May 25th, Oh I love summer babies.  Wish us luck!!!!