I love, love, love my family. As all of us get older,and life gets crazier with more and more kids added to the mix, there are fewer opportunities for us to get together and talk. Some of my favorite moments this holiday season were spent right here in front of Mom and Dad's fireplace, burning our backs, talking, and listening to stories of Andy and Lee's high school shenanigans. They were really naughty boys. Anyway, for me, these gab sessions were the highlights. I love you, family!

Very merry.

Handsome boys on the Sunday before Christmas.

CHEERS! If you think this looks like a wild and rowdy party, you are correct. We had Kate and Andy over for our traditional Christmas Eve fondu event, and it was a TREAT! We ate soooo much. We do a cheese fondu first, with veggies, bread and meats which we eat til we are sick.

Then we read the Christmas story from Luke, and act it out with our little nativity set. We then watch the LDS church's "Joy to the World" DVD. The kids are always wound up, and don't pay much attention to the movie, except for the part of the story when baby Jesus is born. I was very choked up watching all those little kids lined up on the couch watching silently and reverently as Mary showed her baby boy to the shepherds and wise men and the stable animals too. It's not always easy to shift the focus away from presents on this holiday, so I was glad to see this very bright glimmer of understanding and awe in their eyes as we watched.

And then it was back to chaos! We usually also play a game at this point, but forgot this year/ ran out of time. Anyway, then we delve into the desset: chocolate fondu. We dip all kinds of good stuff from fresh fruit to shortbread, gingerbread, pretzels and more. The kids love it. And noone lost an eye with the sharp little fondu forks, so that was an added bonus.

Santa brought everyone what they wanted, and everyone has had a great time playing with their new special toys. Oh, except Bennett's new light saber, which is currently in time-out for 4 days after a MASSIVE tantrum thrown on our way home from his cousins' house in Highland...

Other than that, it's been very merry. VERY, VERY MERRY!

Snow big deal.

So Bennett and Owen have totally passed my up in the world of snowboarding. That's right, my 4 and 6-year-old boys can ride better than I can. They can even get off the lift without hurting themselves or anyone around them, which I cannot do. Even Jake rode the snowboard down Old Main! I'm so proud of them, although it does really freak me out that Bennett is riding the lift alone. Agh! I need to get more photos from Jason of the big boys riding Little Beaver. They both took a 2-hour lesson last week and have been up a few times since then. Jason gets a little teary-eyed with the joy of it all.

Holly Jolly Dollies

Here are some pictures of the dolls I  made this year.  I have lots more cute fabric, as well as a list of people I want to make them for, so if you didn't get one, you still may.  If you really want to make sure you get one, feel free to put in your request now, and I will get to work.  I didn't get pictures of all of them, but they were all darn cute, and they all went to good homes.

I must note here also:  These dolls are NOT my own design.  I found the pattern for them on Martha Stewart online.  Emily Martin, of Black Apple, did a tutorial for these little sweeties.  Hers are of course much cooler, because she is much cooler.  But I think she was really nice to share her pattern.  Don't you?

Finally!

Bennett finally lost his first tooth.  I basically had to trick him into letting me yank the thing out.  A new tooth is halfway grown in behind it.  Oh boy.  Orthodontics, here we come.  But he was really, really excited.  A little freaked out by the blood... guess I forgot to mention that part of it to him.  The tooth fairy gave him $5!  Man, she pays a lot better than she did when I was a kid!  But she told him it was only because this was his first tooth, and because it took so long for him to lose one!  She let him keep the tooth, because he had placed his new metal handcuffs over the tooth with a note that read, "DON'T TAKE IT!"  So she left his tooth alone, and left his money on the Christmas tree instead.  

Bennett's big debut.

Here's Bennett with his first grade teacher, Katie McClellan.

Tonight was the Adams Elementary Christmas recital at the Logan High auditorium.  It was so fun!  All the songs were darling, and the kids were so proud. I was nervous, because I had all the kids while Jason is in Virginia, so I was very grateful to all my boys for being so well-behaved.  They may have just seemed quiet because everyone else around us was so LOUD.  That's okay; it was fun.  We sat on the balcony, which makes everything more exciting!  Bennett was such a grown-up boy tonight, sitting with his buddies and his class, all dressed up and smiling.  I was really proud of him.  He has come a long way since last year when he refused to take part in the concert!

Creativity abounds.

Do you know how much tape we go through at our house?  LOTS.

All my boys are very much into creating things.  Some of it may appear to be junk, but creative junk none-the-less.  I love it! Owen created a Walle-E costume last week all by himself using a butter knife and a diaper box.  It's awesome.  We couldn't locate it this morning, and I feared that Jason may have recycled Wall-E.  Fortunately, he was just behind the couch.  Phew!

Also pictured here is a cool drawing by Jake.  The boys were drawing roller coasters the other day.  This is Jacob's roller coaster invention with lots of little stop signs sticking up to tell people to slow down.
There was a big, big block-building convention here last night with the neighbor kids.  It's never great when 5 kids are trying to build their own special thing, and one of them stretches out their leg or turns around suddenly, knocking everything over.  Tears were shed.  Owen's frowny face was a result of my taking his picture before his fort was completed.  I ruined everything.

Some other ways my boys have been creative recently is through words.  Tonight Owen was coming up with different ways to spell Finn's name.  (We call him Finners.)  Completely on his own, he said we could spell it like this: F-I-N-N-A-S or like this: F-I-N-N-R-Z-Z-Z.  (Gangsta style.)  Also, Owen's vocabulary is starting to amaze me.  Here are some of the words he has recently used:  opaque, rather, prefer, hilarious, towards.  Too cute.  

A couple of weeks ago, I was able to help Owen unravel a mystery I could tell he had been pondering on for quite some time.  He asked, "Mom, is it Give Said the Little String or Stream?"  I answered him that the song says "stream."   "Ohhh," he said, with squinty, thoughtful eyes, "So water..."  I could see that this really helped him understand a song which had previously been really weird to him.  "Give, said the little string as it hurried down the hill," just doesn't make sense.  I loved it.

Speaking of words, Bennett is honestly freaking me out with his reading abilities.  I love watching him encounter words he's never seen before.  He literally laughs out loud when he reads a word that I have told him is too hard for him. :)  Examples from his take-home books:  crescent, amphibian, nonpoisonous and commercial.  Also amazing to me is that he continues to think that math is the greatest thing in the world.  I'm so glad!!!

Now, lest you think this post is just a big brag session about my kids...  Oh wait, IT IS!  Because they are smart and funny and that's what blogs are for, right?  But let's round things out and keep it real with some recent quotes from Jacob McGregors, as we affectionately call him.  I don't know how it started, but that's the latest nick-name.  This kid CRACKS US UP. 

"Believe in yours self.  Dat's what Yoda says."

While eating ice off the ground he asked, "Tan dis be yummy?" instead of, "Can I eat this?"

"If I shoot da bad duys, dey will by tozy (cozy) and dead.  Dead and tozy."  What???

"If bad duys tome (come) in ours house, I will punch them and say, YOU. ARE. DOIN'. (goin') DOWN."

"I didn't pee in my pants...      It's just raindrops.            From my pee-pee."

And one I've been hearing a lot lately:  "I DIDN'T DO NUFFIN!"

Now picture him walking around with a funny little rooster-strut all the time, using a deep and growly voice, and often carrying a little gun made out of legos.  Sweet.

Snow at last!

It sure has been an amazingly mild November and December!  I have loved the sunny weather and being able to ride bikes and walk to and from school.  BUT, there's nothing like the first snow of the year!

Catching up.

Boy, oh boy, am I behind in my blogging. Yikes. I will try to do a brief catch-up with a few photos of some of our latest adventures. First of all, Finn is almost 7 months old. He has started eating solids, sits up like a champ, loves his brothers, and his own reflection. He has two deadly wicked teeth that look like tiny saws. Two more are coming in on top. FUN FOR ME! Honestly, though, he is the best baby. He is so very charming.
Thanksgiving was delightful.  Jason was busy making a mince-meat pie that morning, complete with a cursive "L" on top.  L is for lovely!  I should also add that he sewed himself a hat the night before, and smoked a turkey with his friend, Todd Strickland.  As he put it, he is running his own home-school home-ec course at our house.  I think it's so cool.  I don't know very many other fellows spending their holidays in such a fashion.
Well, we did it again.  The great Christmas  tree hunt of 2008 was definitely one to be remembered, and hopefully not repeated.  Let's just say we do have a fresh tree in our living room, which our boys think is the tree we cut down in the woods near Cub River.  But it's not.
What better way to bring on the holiday cheer than a trip to see the lights at Temple Square?!  It's a magical place to me.  We had such a good time with Mom, Dad and Cami.  I love my family so much!  I loved watching the nativity story with my boys and remembering how it felt to watch it when I was a kid.  I love it still.  I also loved that it was 50 degrees that night, instead of freezing, as it normally is whenever we go see the lights.  It was delightful!