Merry Christmas!

When we got home from Duluth, we let the boys open the presents from Mom and Dad.

We made them wait until after church to open everything from Santa, so we let them open more than we usually do on Christmas eve.

They each got slippers, a puzzle and a game.

Christmas morning we got up and had a nice breakfast and then went to church. I loved only going to church for sacrament meeting and then going home and spending the day enjoying family. I think Christmas should be on Sunday every year.

Doug also had Monday off, so we played with their new toys and watched the new movies that each of the boys got.

Nathan wasn't so sure about opening presents. He had to have help to get into his present.

Andrew and Jacob each got and Angry Birds balls. They got out whatever they could find and made their own Angry Birds game.

Tis the Season

I was able to go to Jacob's kindergarten class and help with gingerbread houses (or more like milk carton houses). They had a TON of candy  so the houses were covered with sugar.

This year we had a ward party with a dinner and a program. The whole primary sang Jingle Bells. We were excited to have our neighbor's the Hess' come with us.

I'm not sure if Danny sang at all or just shook his bell the whole time.

Christmas was on Sunday this year. Since we didn't go home to Utah, we decided to go up to Duluth for 2 nights. We stayed in a hotel that had a water park in it. They also had lots of games that we could check out from the front desk. Andrew and Jacob loved playing Life with Dad.

I played Cooties and Memory with Danny. He LOVED Cooties!

The first night we were there we went down town to the Bentlyville Tour of Lights. It was AMAZING!

We drove down to the park and then walked around looking at all the light displays.

In one area there was free hot chocolate and cookies for everyone.

There was holiday music playing.

In another area there were fires to roast marshmallow.

Santa was there. We had to wait in line for quite a while to see him, but it was well worth it. He told the boys to clean their room before he came on Christmas morning. They also each got a new hat and it had a bag of cookies in it.

There was also an area with bags of popcorn for everyone.

There was an ice skating area. We watched people skate and the boys walked on the ice.

We had SO MUCH fun! I hope we are able to do this again next year.

On Friday we got up in the morning and had a huge breakfast at the hotel and then went and played in the water park. Nathan and I sat in a tube and went around and around the lazy river. It was so relaxing to have him just lay on me as we floated on the water.

Doug took the boys on the water slides.

Then we went back to our room and took naps and then went swimming again that evening.

We had a wonderful vacation. It was fun to play in the water even though there was snow outside. We all agree that this should become a yearly tradition!

Thanksgiving

Happy Nathan at 8 months old.

Thanksgiving this year we spent at home. The day was filled with lots of good food and lots of football! What more could a house full of boys ask for?

I asked everyone what was the ONE thing that they wanted for Thanksgiving. Jacob said he wanted pretzel salad. Andrew wanted a chocolate pie and Doug wanted cheese ball with crackers. I think we had plenty of everything. It was great to spend Wednesday and Thursday cooking so I didn't have to for the rest of the weekend. By Sunday the boys were asking for ANYTHING but Thanksgiving food again...Maybe I cooked enough for an army and not just a family of boys:)

A new tradition we started this year was our Thankful Turkey. We all came up with things we were thankful for to make the turkeys feathers. It was really fun to hear what the boys were grateful for.

Friday Doug went into town early and got the black Friday sales, then he headed to work. The boys and Mom had a relaxing day at home.

Saturday we spent the day putting up the Christmas decorations. The boys loved decorating the tree...Nathan has had fun UN-decorating the tree!

Nathan is now 9 months old.

He is such a cute little boy. It is so fun to see him interact with his brothers. He loves all of them so much. Nathan has his bottom 2 teeth and his first top tooth has just broke through. He isn't crawling yet buy gets up on his hands and knees, so it won't be long. He is really good at half army crawling. He uses one arm to crawl and the other arm to guide where he wants to go.

Nathan LOVES his Mom! I went to the dentist the other day and my friend Abby watched him. He CRIED the WHOLE hour I was gone. As soon as I got there,  he was done crying and happy as could be. He is okay with Dad, but not others.

Saturday Morning

I came downstairs last Saturday to find the 3 boys playing Monopoly together. I don't think there is anything better than to see my boys get a long!

Last Saturday Andrew and Jacob also started basketball for the first time. It will be fun to go each Saturday and watch them learn.