Justin's Christmas Wish List

I am not the greatest at going through my kids backpacks! Before I sent Justin back to school on Wednesday (he had strept throat on Tuesday) I cleaned out his backpack. I found his "Christmas Wish List" he had made at school. I was quite surprised to read what he wanted for Christmas. Keep in mind he is in Kindergarten, and all of the things on the list are the real thing, not a toy.

1. Nintendo DS
2. Laptop Computer
3. Dog
4. Gold Brick
5. School
6. Car
7. Basketball Court
8. Bus
9. House

The only thing he got from his list was his first thing. I don't quite know what to think of his list. When I was in Kindergarten I am sure my list was full of toys, but for some reason my kids don't really play with toys. When I asked him why he would want a house when we already have a nice house to live in he said he thought it would be fun to have one for himself that he didn't have to share!

Tyson's Christmas

The theme for Tyson this Christmas was definitely BYU. He recently got a mural painted on his wall and so he also got a lot of accessories for his room to help complete the BYU theme. Grandma Yardley wanted to contribute and bought him some BYU sweat pants which he would have loved if only they would have fit! I thought I could make them work, but after he held them up we knew there was no fixing them, so I got a new pair of sweats and I had to buy something else for him to have from Grandma (he chose football cards). Tyson also got a BYU book that he loves to read, a BYU rug, and a BYU wallet. He can never have enough BYU stuff. The picture at the top is a picture of his wall. One of the ladies that I visit teach painted it just by looking at a small picture of it. I am so thankful other people's talents! She told me it wasn't very hard and I probably could have done it myself, she obviously has never seen me try to paint!

Merry Christmas; Happy New Year

We hope that all of you had a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year; I know we all did. Christmas was wonderful for all of us, and despite what Tyson said in our Christmas letter, I really didn't get rid of all of our traditions, we actually added a few new ones. Everyone had a favorite gift... Emily - Guitar Hero; Tyson - Rip Stick; Justin - Nintendo DS; Ryan - Geo Trax (Nicole's favorite too!) Abigail - Dora Backpack; Jeff's - Digital Picture Frame (and everything else that Nicole gave him). We have had beautiful weather, but because of it being so warm it hasn't really seemed too much like the Christmas season. Here is my favorite picture of Justin and Abigail, it is not very often that we have one turn out this cute! The next picture is of the whole family the Sunday before Christmas. I don't know how to make the pictures go where I want them to yet. Maybe I will figure it out sometime this upcoming year!

2008 was a wonderful year for our family, despite everything that is going on around the world, we have been extremely blessed. We are so grateful for all of our blessings. The highlight of 2008 were our two trips this summer; one to Utah and the other to Pennsylvania.

We started the New Year off with a night full of games. We played games until 12:00 with the three oldest kids. It is fun now that they are old enough to really play. We spent New Years day just relaxing and Justin and Tyson played flag football with some friends. Tyson would like this to be a tradition every year.

One of Those Days

It was one of those days when I was trying to get everything done before I had to go help at the school, and I needed the house clean because someone was coming over to babysit. I was in the laundry room switching out clothes when in walked Ryan looking as he does in this picture! Need I say anymore?

November is Over

November was a wonderful month, and I am not sure how it got away so quick. I planned all along to have most of my Christmas done early this year (before Thanksgiving), but before I knew it Thanksgiving was past and we were well into December. So, Christmas cards will be coming out shortly! I think part of the problem is the fact that everyone tries to get all of the parties, etc. done early so they all end up being the last week of November, first week of December. We have already had a violin recital, soccer party, piano recital, Choir Christmas Concert, Christmas Enrichment dinner, and ward party; they were actually all over with last week, I just needed a week to recover.

The piano recital was great, Tyson and Emily are the only two taking from their teacher so it made it short and very sweet! It is always more fun for me to listen to my kids than other people's kids. Here are two of the many songs they played

In the middle of all the craziness, Ryan turned 3. He had a Blues Clue party with just a few friends over. It was a lot of fun for all of them. His favorite thing was the pinata, but he was very sad when it got thrown away after. The next day when I was grocery shopping he informed me he needed a new pinata since his got broken, and since I have never gotten him a new one he continues to remind me every time he sees them at the store. Here is a picture of him with his cake (I am not sure why, but the picture is at the top instead!).

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving. We spent the day at Lorel and Annabells. My kids all decided Annabell is the best cook they know. They got to decorate gingerbread houses after dinner. That is a tradition Annabell started with the kids and they love doing it.

It has now been an hour since I started and my video is still uploading, I guess you will not get to hear their piano songs.

Funny Things Said By Ryan

Ryan is at the age where he is always making us laugh. It is great that he has such an extensive vocabulary for his age because we would never understand what he was thinking if he couldn't say it to us.

The kids all love to have hot chocolate every morning before school. A few days ago I put a little mint in it to make it extra good for them. Ryan said nothing about it, but the next day when I went to make him his hot chocolate he said, "Mom, please don't put toothpaste in my hot chocolate again!"

A few days later I was getting him dressed and realized he had written all over his legs. I asked him why he did that and he said, "I had to write on my legs so I would remember my name is Ryan." Shortly after the conversation I was trying to get him to hurry to get into his car seat and as I was trying to say Ryan hurry up I said, "Tyson, Just, I mean Ryan hurry up." Ryan than pulled up the leg of his pants and said, "Look Mom, I am Ryan." Maybe I need everyone to write their names on their legs so I can keep them straight!

Just today after I got ready for church I came into the family room and Ryan said, "Mom you look beautiful in those clothes, I can't wait until I am a Mom so I can wear clothes like those."

We all love Ryan. He always keeps our lives interesting. He will be turning three on November 30. It is hard to believe he will be this old, but at the same time I don't think there are many kids as young as him that know so much. He was telling me a few days ago as he was using Emily's Karaoke machine that he needed the Hannah Montana One CD not Hannah Montana Two!

Halloween Pictures Finally Downloaded

Tyson was the Grim Reaper. He had a hard time deciding what to be because he wanted it to be scary, but could not wear a mask to the ward party.

Emily dressed up as a witch, she even made her black cat a witches hat

Ryan was a dinosaur, but he made sure everyone knew he was a nice one not a mean one!

Abigail wore her costume the whole time, I think this is the first time I have had a child her age that didn't just pull the hat off!

Justin's costume was the most popular! When I went to watch him in the costume parade at school I had my camera ready to take a picture of him and was very excited to take a picture of him waving at me, only to find out as he got closer that it was not Justin, and Justin had already passed. I had to go to his classroom to get a picture of him.

Everybody loaded up ready to go trick-or treating!