Christmas!

Brian got himself an early Christmas present! He got an award for all of his hard work and decided it was time to play a little! He was out Christmas shopping and found this at an arcade store on clearance and he knew it would be a fun addition to our loft, and he was right!



The boys got to take food to the local food bank and sit on Santa's lap and give him their letters. Nathan loved it and told him everything he wanted! No shy boys here!


We went down to Boise for Christmas - it was so fun to be together! We all love to sing the carols, well at least all the girls do. :)

Christmas Eve dinner - always delicious!

The kids did a great job acting out the Nativity story while Papa read it from the Bible.

One of our traditions is to do Christmas crackers on Christmas Eve!

Christmas morning - youngest to oldest line-up!

I made the boys scrapbooks - they loved them!

Nathan loved getting new toys!

It was a super fun Christmas at the Ashtons and we were so glad we got to be there with them and Cam and Lori, and my parents! Playing games every night, doing puzzles, and just being together - doesn't get much better than that!

Merry New Year!

We went to the Mitchells in Portland for New Year's and we had a great time! The kids loved playing together and got to go to the bouncy place and to play glow-in-the-dark miniature golf!

Jerem's parents invited us to their house for Bunco and fondue! It was quite the party - the kids wanted to be included in the Bunco and did quite well! It was a very fun night and glad we got to celebrate it together!

Thanksgiving, BYU football & Farewells!

I figure I better blog about Thanksgiving before Christmas gets here no matter how busy life is! We had a super long wonderful Thanksgiving break! We got to Utah the Friday before and didn't leave until the Tuesday after! It was so nice to be there so long, but somehow if flew by and didn't seem long enough!

We started the visit with an awesome BYU vs. Air Force game! It was so fun being able to take Adam and Matt and I hadn't been to a game at BYU for years! The boys loved the atmosphere, the cougar tail, and going down after to give the players high-5's!

Yummy Cougar Tail!

Nathan loved helping in the kitchen! He and Nana made sugar cookies, rolls, and pie crusts (with a little help from me)!

On Thanksgiving the boys had their Turkey Bowl down at Lakeridge! They had a great time and it was a beautiful day for some football!

With 35 people for dinner we had about 20 pounds of potatoes to peel!

Carving the turkey - I had to make sure it was good!

Matt was ready for a yummy dinner!

The cousins got to eat together and they had a great time!

It was a wonderful dinner and a fun day seeing so many loved ones! SO much to be thankful I couldn't list all my blessings if I tried! All I know is that I need to do more to be deserving of all of the blessings I have been given.

GO BYU! We were all SO excited for the big BYU vs. Utah game!

Adam and Brian were our lucky family representatives! The rest of us got to watch it on the couch, but it was still super fun and exciting, minus the cold!

Adam on the 'C' of the endzone! A great game!

We had a special opportunity at the end of our visit to take Brian's parents to the MTC and send them off for their mission to Chile! We were so lucky to get to take them to their room, see their family room area, and go through the MTC with them. Hard to say goodbye, but we are so excited for them and all the wonderful experiences to come! They are going to do wonders in Chile and the people will love them! I don't know what we'll do without them though!

It was such a wonderful visit! The boys had a blast with their cousins and we loved all being together! Feeling very blessed to have such wonderful family and friends!

Halloween!

On Halloween Eve we carved our pumpkins! Adam and Matt had a great time scooping out all the guts, but Nathan would spoon out one seed at a time, so I helped him. We finally got the carving pumpkin tools and I was surprised at how well they worked - Adam and Matt were able to mostly carve their own, which was great!

For Halloween Adam wanted to be Obi Wan, Matthew wanted to be Luke, and Nathan wanted to be a king!

We were so lucky to have the Mitchells and Brian's parents to come to celebrate the holiday! The kids loved having their cousins to go with them trick-or-treating!

We went to a house where they spend thousands decorating for Halloween - it was amazing, but a little creepy for the little guy!

Brian's parents set up a fun spook alley at the house for when the kids got home - when they had gone through it they got to take their parents through! It was fun and super spooky!

All in all - a great Halloween!

Night of the Notables!

It's Thomas Edison! It has been so fun to see Adam immerse himself into learning about Thomas Edison for the first two months of school! He has been attending the Discovery Program this year and they start the year picking a notable person from history they would like like to learn about and they work very hard to learn everything they can about them! They get to become their notable and see if the guests who come can guess who they are. Adam loved it and had a great time telling people about his zoetrope and telegraph machine, pointing out his timeline with his major accomplishments, and acting the part!

It was also fun for us to go around and see all of the other notable people from history! He has some great friends and it is so fun to see him loving school so much! I am just so grateful for such an amazing program! He did a great job and we are so proud of him and all of his hard work!

Alyssa's 15th Birthday!

It was so fun to have Alyssa and Caryn come visit for her 15th birthday - October 16th! Alyssa (my niece) is such a great girl and it was wonderful to get to spend so much time with just her! (I made her wear the hat, but just for the pic.)

She really wanted to have lunch at the top of the Space Needle in the spinning restaurant and it was a blast! The food was delicious and the dessert - the Astro Orbitor - was on dry ice and super cool! The view was a bit overcast, but it could have been worse. We had fun looking at the city and trying not to get dizzy while eating!

After lunch we went to the movie Fame and then to Bell Square for Alyssa's first pedicure! It was so fun - especially to see her giggle when they were scrapping her feet! We all left with super cute toes and headed to The Cheesecake Factory for dinner!

Alyssa will get her driving permit soon, but had never sat in the driver's seat before, so I decided that her birthday would be a great time to let her try it out (in Brian's car)! She did a great turn around the church parking lot - it was fun to watch her - we put Caryn in the back! :)

This was her Mint-Moosetracks with mint filled Oreos and magic shell ice cream cake! Yum!

For day two of fun we headed first to Poulsbo - a cute Norwegian village with lots of fun shopping, a yummy bakery, and delicious Halibut fish n' chips! We then took the ferry to Seattle, went to the outlets for more shopping, and then we dropped Alyssa off at a friends house that she met at EFY. Alyssa went to a Stake dance and Caryn and I drove to Tacoma to the one and only Chevy's in Washington! It was yummy and we had a great time - Caryn is such a wonderful sister!

It was such a fun weekend - I know it was for Alyssa, but it was a much needed weekend for me too! I was so impressed with the outstanding young woman Alyssa is - she is such a great girl! Caryn and Jon have done well raising her. I just hope there are mom's and dad's out there raising amazing girls just like her for my boys to marry!