Christmas

We had a great Christmas break. The first two days of no school were hard and I was ready to send the boys back. But after that everything was fun. For Christmas Eve we stayed home and the boys made graham cracker houses. They turned out to be very easy. We have usually tried to do a gingerbread house every year, but this year I was looking for something easier and this turned out to be just what I was looking for. Every one could do one and they went together so easy. The boys loved it.

Tanner's house built with help from mom(notice all the yellow).Devin's house (I think he ate more candy than went on the house.)Hayden's house (giving instruction to dad, who helped with the icing.)Posing with their finished houses.

After we finished our houses we decided to take advantage of the fact that we now live on a hill. So we went sliding down the road in front of our house. It was a lot of fun and we could really get moving. Due to the fact that the snow plow only plowed our road twice through all the snow storms and managed to get stuck both times he came up our street, it was pretty slick.

Hayden on a neighbors sled.Tanner riding down on Devin's back.Tanner in the snow.Joel pushing the boys. Getting them going.Even Ellie joined us out in the snow for a little while.

For Christmas Eve dinner we have decided to try and do some sort of foreign meal, since neither Joel nor I have any real family traditions for this meal. We did a Indian noodle meal and it turned out really yummy and fun, because it was different.

Because Christmas always gets so busy with presents and things, we always tell, act out, with lots of music the Birth of Christ. We have really tried to teach our children that Christmas is a celebration of Christs birth and this is always the best part of Christmas.

Devin and Hayden playing with Christmas presents.Ellie on Christmas morning. Helping dad with Christmas dinner.

All in all it turned out to be some pretty fun days together.

Day after Christmas, Joel shoveling out the drive way. Maybe next year he can get himself something to help him out. He was pretty sore after shoveling us out.

Going Ons

Devin and Hayden wanted to try wrestling this year, so we signed them up and they had a great time. I thought that it would be harder for them because it is an individual sport and if they lost they would be sad. But my boys loved it, they loved getting to wrestle other kids and didn't care at all if they lost. They thought that it was a big game.

Devin

Hayden

With their medals.

Big blue eyes Ellie and grandpa Wilson watching the match.
Grandma Wilson and Tanner not watching the match.

We took the boys to see the lights at temple square. It was beautiful and they loved it. It was a little cold though, so we are looking forward to going back sometime this coming summer.

We haven't had a problem with our children at Christmas time before, they were ever to small or old enough to leave the presents alone. But this year we had an Ellie who was very curious. Besides pulling the lights off the trees and all the decorartions that she could reach, she had to check out the packages as well.

The boys made a snowman on their day off of school.

Grandma Honey's Birthday

This month we celebrated Joel's Grandmas 94th birthday. We are grateful to still have her with us, and doing so well. Here she is with two of her great grandsons Tanner and Rowdy. It was a fun afternoon to reaquaint with some of Joel's cousins that we haven't seen for years.

Grandma Honey with her children.

Our family with Grandma Honey

Ellie with her grandma Lewis and Uncle Travis.

Tanner licking the icing of his cake.

Family Pictures

Last weekend we went and had my aunt Janice take our family pictures. She did a great job, and made it fun. She is still editing the pictures but posted a few on her blog which I borrowed to post here.

She has a couple more posted on her blog if you want to see more. Thanks Aunt Janice for doing our pictures!

Halloween

I know I am slow posting these but better late than never, right.

Here are some pictures of our Halloween activities.

For our family home evening we carved pumkins, or the boys picked out the patterns and Joel and I carved pumpkins. So here are the boys with the picture they picked out.

Devin with a ship. Hayden with a spider.

Devin's ship was supposed to have a skull and cross bones on the mast, but his mom did most of the carving and left them off.

Tanner liked the cat, so he picked this one.

Also for a FHE activity, we went to a local corn maze. It was a lot of fun, but it did get to be long. We were lost in there at least an hour, it started to get dark and the boys just wanted to head throuth the corn and get out. The hardest part was near the end you could see the out we just couldn't figure out how to get there. After it was over Devin said that it was a tiny bit scary. This is my big boy who has to be tough. There were scary things posted along the was, but since it was family night they did not have the scary things on.

I couldn't get Tanner to turn around . He was watching the group in front of us disappear.

The ward here combines with a couple other ward and have a huge Trunk or Treat.

Devin as batman (he left the reat of the costume at school.) Hayden as Ironman.

Tanner as a red Power Ranger, and Ellie as Tigger.

Party at Grandma Wilsons

We had a great weekend at grandma and grandpa house. Mom had her birthday party for everyone who had a birthday the last half of the year. Because Kami is on her mission mom planned the party this last weekend on Kami's birthday. Since it was so close to Halloween and nobody goes home for this holiday mom planned a Halloween party as well and all the kids brought their costumes. It was a fun time since none of us live really close this was a chance for all of us to see all the fun costumes. The kids just had a blast being together.
The cowboy and cowgirls. Some of the kids.

All of the kids (Kate is behind Alexys.) Venita and Jeph (a cowgirl and her cow)

Melanie (nerd) Tom (?) Emily (who wouldn't wear her costume but looked very cute in Ashlynn's puppy costume.)

Taylor as a secrity officer. Andrew as a cowboy.

Erika (a scary pumpkin) Klayton as an Incredible.

Tan with his big muscles. Chanae and David L. (not quite awake couple)

Brogan (an elephant) Kate (as a princess)

Hayd (iron man) Alexys (a princess)

Ashlynn (a very sleepy puppy) and Uncle Ken

Henry and Ashlynn as two cute puppies.

I didn't get everyone. I am sorry check the other family blog sites. I missed Isaac who is going to be a football player, Adam a super hero (? sorry I forgot which one), and Sarah, a ladybug. We missed you guys at our party, and Aunt Kami. We had a lot of fun, Thanks Grandma!