Happy Birthday Mark!

Mark celebrated his birthday this month! It was a pretty low key celebration. When he got home from work he got his presents. We got him a guitar stand, a music stand, a guitar strap, a video game, and some workout clothes.

We waited for the weekend, and then went to the Snakebite for his birthday lunch. Later that night I made him some yummy chocolate chip cookie dough egg rolls for his birthday treat.

Happy birthday Mark!

USU Running Clinic

Sawyer had an awesome opportunity to go with some of his teammates to Logan, for a Utah State University Running Clinic. The USU Coach, and a couple USU record holding athletes taught the clinic. They learned about agilities, and some good workouts for strength, core, and hips. When the teaching was over, they had lunch (and Aggie ice cream), and headed home. He's really glad he went, and he learned a lot.

Happy New Year!

We had a pretty low key New Year's celebration this year. We got invited to a couple different gatherings, but just stayed home by ourselves instead. Sawyer decided to go to a party with his friends, and we didn't want to leave Bailey all alone. We told her she could pick a game to play, a movie to watch, and somewhere to go get a treat. Sawyer left for his party while we were in the middle of our game. I think he was having second thoughts about going, because we have always spent New Years together. The roads were REALLY icy that night, and I was worried there might be drunk drivers out right about the time he'd be driving home (yes, I'm paranoid). So, Mark dropped him off at his party. We got a call about an hour and a half later that he wanted to come home and hang out with us. I was pretty glad he did....except for the fact that he kicked all our butts in Harry Potter Scene It. Even though we didn't do anything elaborate like we sometimes do, it was nice to have us all together to ring in the New Year :)! It's also nice to know that our kids still like to hang out with us.

HAPPY 2012 EVERYONE!

A New Face for a New Year!

Sawyer didn't shave at all over the Christmas break. He grew a caterpillar under his nose, and a porcupine beard. I kept telling him to shave, but he refused. We went to the Stake New Years Activity for the youth on Saturday. All the girls kept telling him to shave too. Since it was Brittany's birthday, he finally agreed that she could shave his face for her birthday present :)! THANK YOU BRITTANY for having a birthday at the perfect time! The girls were almost as excited as me! A new face, for a new year!

Emily and Lisa had the honor of applying the shaving cream.

Brittany went to work! I think they were all grossed out by the whole process, but she stuck it out, and actually did a really good job!

I was cracking up at the whole process. Sawyer was a great sport! He even let them cut his sideburns up to his ears (he was working on a chin strap).

The new and improved face!!! It's funny that it took a group of girls a few minutes to convince him to do what I had been begging him to do for a long time :)! I guess I know who to call when I need him to be persuaded next time :)!

Merry Christmas

Christmas Eve

We had a great and traditional Christmas Eve! We did all the things we usually do. I was thinking that now that the kids are older, they wouldn't want to do some of our usual activities. I was wrong about that! They both like to stick to tradition, and that makes me happy :)!

Our Christmas Eve story was, One Silent Night, this year. It was longer than the picture books we usually get, so we all took turns reading it.

We made chocolate and butterscotch chip cookies for Santa, and of course Bailey had to leave carrots.

Everyone opened a present. They all got new pjs.

We went out right before bed to throw our Reindeer Dust. It makes me sad to think we only have one more year of Sawyer's Reindeer Dust "posing" left before he leaves home! The pictures won't quite be the same without him.

Christmas

The kids actually let us sleep in a whole hour this year. They didn't come get us until 5:30 in the morning! We opened presents, had sticky buns for breakfast, and then headed to church.

Santa came!

Christmas morning

Sawyer got a gas card from Santa! That should last him a few months.

Santa left Bailey a phone! She was pretty dang excited about that!

Bailey got the boys Angry Bird hats :)!

Even the dogs got spoiled! They both got giant bones, and lots of treats and toys.

Reeses loves getting presents. She would get all excited about something, and then come lay down and watch us open stuff while she waited for her next present.

I tunes cards!

We hid this present behind the tree and saved it for the end. They got an Xbox 360 with Kinect. Sawyer got a Halo game, and Bailey got Dance Central.

Sawyer had a great Christmas. Some of his highlights were The Xbox, a ski club membership with passes to Kelly Canyon, a big gas card, I tunes cards, movies, books, clothes, etc...

Bailey was a happy girl! Some of her highlights were the Xbox, phone, tons of books, movies, boots, 3 church outfits, running stuff, etc...

We are grateful that we are blessed to provide material things for our kids, but we are MORE grateful that they understand the true meaning of Christmas, and the reason we celebrate. I loved that Christmas fell on a Sunday this year. After we opened presents, we went to church and were able to focus on the Savior. Bailey preformed with the choir for the Christmas program, and it was awesome. It was a very Christ centered program that really brought the true meaning of Christmas to everyone there.

Merry Christmas!