The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

Once again we have so many reasons to be grateful. Jared's parents came home from their mission in the Philippines early this month. With the tumultuous weather in that part of the world, we're all relieved they made it home safely. It was fun to wait at the airport for them (new experience for me) and ALL of their children and grandchildren were there. We had a nice evening with dinner and catching up. The kids ran wild downstairs and I chuckled to myself when I crept down to take this photo of them having a good old time.

The next day the party shifted to Denette's and the weather was so mild then the kids could play outside. It has been a warm December up until just before Christmas. The kids had fun things to do while some dads and boys went to shoot clay pigeons.

These are adorable snowmen that the kids made thanks to Jared's sisters' planning. They are tube socks filled with rice, separated into sections with rubber bands. Usually I don't get into crafts, but this one was a winner. I loved how the littlest kids would pack them around like a doll. Even the boys enjoyed them.



The kids also decorated little Christmas trees made out of ice cream cones and candy. With so many in the family now, it's a crowd for sure. But we are fortunate to have the opportunity to all be in one place, which only happens a couple times each year.

Grandma and Grandpa had a gift for everyone - amazingly they brought them from the Philippines in their 4 pieces of luggage! They must have left some "non-essentials" behind. The kids all patiently waited to open them until everyone had a gift.

Even as a part time instructor at UVU, I am getting into the spirit of "Wolverine Green". Well, sort of. We went to watch the men's basketball team take on Utah State and I had to wear my Aggie apparel right there in the front row (of the UVU section). It was actually a very close, competitive game and I was worried that my alma mater might lose. But in the end, they came through. Not all of our little family was happy though - tears were shed when the green team went down. Not by Bennett though, he had a great time and loved the green man group you can see performing behind him.

Christmas finally arrived and the boys were surprisingly slow at opening presents. I don't mean to complain though, they were just excited to see the snow (me too, it seemed overdue). On the flip side, they haven't been able to tear around outside on their new ride-on toys but I'm pretty confident we'll get a January thaw. Can you tell I'm semi-obsessed with the weather?

These gifts, including the bean bag, were from Jared's parents. We have been practicing baseball indoors and haven't broken anything. Yet. Of course, some of ours and Santa's picks were a hit and some less so. We've gotten especially good entertainment for the cost out of Star Wars coloring books, and Play-Doh, and the green block style stilts that Bennett is showing off. Both boys like the height advantage and didn't have any trouble with their coordination. That's sort of a goal of mine, to have the boys be capable of basic things, like catching and throwing a ball. I don't expect them to be professional athletes but I personally love sports toys.

It is always a treat when Grandma Leslie and Papa Mack come by - especially when they bring gifts! They gave the boys some fun robot slash transfomer thingys, a frighteningly fast hot wheels track, and electronic bugs that crawl through a sort of obstacle course. It's all pretty futuristic here in the year (almost) 2015. One day soon my phone will be more intelligent than I am. You can see the Christmas Story marathon on behind Paxton...I am entertained by that show every year. We'll end it here with a few pics from tubing. That orange hat was totally Bennett's idea.

November

Once in a while, the boys take a turn on the pottery wheel. I admire Jared's courage to let them get this messy...I still haven't let them have play dough at our house. But they both find it fun and I love how eager they are to try it. I have done it once since college and I am certainly out of practice...my pot wasn't any bigger than what the boys can make. 

On another note, we had a lovely Thanksgiving dinner with Jared's siblings but I don't have photos to show. Maybe one of the sisters has some to share??

These pictures are from a unique trip we took with our neighbors to their family's farm in Idaho. They invited us to come and spoiled us the whole time. It is a beautiful, quiet location with wide open space and an impressive home. Our neighbor's daughter totally entertained the boys with the rope swing, four-wheelers, and movies galore. We've always been grateful to have wonderful neighbors and our relationships with them continue to grow into friendships. 

  

Paxton enjoyed this great rope-swing. Thanks to Dad terrorizing him on another neighbors' circus-like contraption, he's gotten used to this sort of thing. He adores the attention from our neighbor and we think she is a fantastic girl.

The temps were mild the first day and Bennett played in this patch of snow. Maybe some day I'll have the enthusiasm for snow that our boys do. I had been feeling under the weather but was able to relax while everyone else did the cooking and clean up.  Thanks guys!

Our neighbor and his son entertained Jared with pheasant hunting. He had never shot a pheasant before (after a few attempts) so he was determined to get one. The second day he did get two. The neighbor's son is very good and had success every time he went out. We were impressed with his discipline and knowledge. The picture below is of a pheasant farm that we visited. The owner let Paxton try to catch one with a net but they were pretty quick and the enclosure was large enough to give them an advantage.

Bennett here was making my squash look good. This variety of butternut grew large (27+llbs for one) and plentiful. We have way too much.

To sum it all up, we have a tremendous amount of things to be thankful for. First and foremost is our family; our boys. They are precious and challenging and a joy. And then of course our parents, (we're so excited to see the missionaries soon) who all provide amazing love and examples to Paxton and Bennett. We love you all!

Fun October

We took advantage of Fall Break and headed to St. George. Our favourite Canadian happens to live there so it was especially fun. This time we rented a condo from a family member and that worked out GREAT. I loved that we could have some meals there and go out for others so it was healthier, cheaper, and less hectic. Jaylene and Ellie joined us as much as possible - here at Snow Canyon. Ellie was adorable with Bennett; Bennett said "I don't want a sister".



The weather was PERFECT, Jared & I took our road bikes and biked each morning. They have a nice urban trail system that we could hop onto fairly near the condo.

We all had a great time in this silky sand, despite my forgetting - for the second time - to bring any shovels, buckets, or sand toys.

Just a shot of our little picnic with J & E who were always game for anything. They also showed us the best restaurants and historic downtown so we could try the local fare and spoil the boys a bit.  

This nearby park was a great adventure for the boys. I'm glad parks never get old for them. St. George wasn't terribly busy overall. Although one place I wanted to visit (Red Cliffs Reserve) was closed due to damage from flooding, we enjoyed not having a tight schedule.

This is overlooking the valley on top of Dixie rock. It's part of Pioneer park, a lot of red rock to scramble over. It could be nerve racking if your children didn't listen carefully - or if your husband pretends to throw one off a ledge : /

We have another October birthday to celebrate, our nephew Jack turned 1 this month. He has made incredible strides, despite his pre-mature birth he is right on target. He is adorable, very mobile and was impressive at opening gifts.



His mom and dad are so proud and we LOVE their family so much. And they have a mesmerizing electronic garbage can that Amy can't get enough of.

We had promised Paxton a friend party this year and decided to take them to a local "farm" that's all decked out for Halloween. This corn pit was the surprise hit.

A couple of Paxton's pals here tackled him. One is a neighbor whose family has become quick friends of ours. They have animals and have helped us with our sheep endeavor.
















All the kids loved this giant slide except Paxton.  I would have pushed him down it if I'd had to...even after everyone else went, he kept saying "I don't know about this". Jared said the look of terror on his face as he went down was priceless.

Bennett is far more particular about his choice of apparel than Paxton ever was, so I didn't protest when he wanted his red felt cowboy hat to go to the farm. It made him much easier to spot and no sunscreen required.

Our celebration on Paxton's actual birthday was small but sweet. I had attempted to make a cake in the shape of the superman logo but it was an EPIC fail. Let's just say that Betty Crocker needs to work on the firmness of her "foolproof" cake recipe. Or I need to learn how to decorate.

So Macey's had these cute Halloween cakes that Bennett and I picked out. You can see that Bennett was eager to blow the candles out before we finished singing. He may seem shy to strangers but at home his is full of gusto and opinions. Tonight he told Jared he only likes him on Halloween and on summer nights.

My cousin invited us to their Halloween party, which was nice because we had no other gigs to attend. All the kids get spoiled there with fun prizes and even a hay ride around the neighborhood to show off their costumes.

One of their traditions is a silly string fight, but Bennett didn't get the memo, so when daddy plastered him he was kinda upset. He recovered once he knew it would fall right off of his clothes and face.

Family Hunting Trip

This month has been a typical September except for the end when we took the boys to join Weston and his family on a muzzle loader hunting trip. Me, being the overly sensitive toward animals type, would never be found holding a gun myself. But, I can appreciate the sport and reality of life and death. More on that later.



These kids had a great time together and our campsite had this giant rock that soon became base headquarters. They were able to create, mostly with their imaginations,  numerous "weapons" out of the plentiful sticks (it was like we camped on a used up logging site) and for the most part stay out of trouble.

The weather was beautiful for the first two days so we enjoyed the pretty fall color and peaceful location. Although we ended up camping higher than we'd planned, it was still quite mild until Friday evening when it started to rain and didn't stop. Luckily (no offense guys), Jared and Weston were able to get their 4 point deer on their first real hike Friday morning. They were also fortunate to hitch a ride back to camp with two very knowledgeable men who had a map and helped them figure out the best way to get back to their kill.  If you want to see photos of the deer, a good sized one, talk to Weston. In order to post them here I'd have to SEE them and I just couldn't do it.  Jared will tell you their success story below.

Overall it was a very enjoyable hunt.  Weston got the first shot of the hunt, but luckily he missed it and when I had a chance to shoot at it my action wasn't pulled back so the gun did not shoot. Weston then saw a 3 point but didn't get a shot at it. The next group of deer we came across had multiple bucks in it.  Unfortunately I wasn't able to get a shot at the largest one. My instinct was to run after the group of deer so I could get a shot, but I told myself to slow down and not chase them and maybe we would come across them again.  Moments later a 4 point emerged and I took my shot.  I hit him in the back leg.  I radioed to Weston telling him to go over the little ridge where the deer had just gone.  A minute later Weston made the shot of his life and killed the deer. Unfortunately it took us about 7 hours to get the deer back to camp between figuring out where we were and dragging time. Note to self....if you don't know the area very well, take a GPS with you!!!  We also saw a nice sized bull elk while trying to find our way out.    

Continuing on with the grim subject of death, our lambs have gotten about as big as they are going to get. They haven't been invited to stay for winter. So these lovely pictures show them sharing the field with a neighbor's horses while we were all out chatting about their demise.

If Bennett had realized how close this horse was I doubt he would have stayed standing there. Sometimes he's even afraid of the sheep but other days he jumps around and roars at them. He's pretty pleased with himself when they run away.

This is a snapshot of our garden, the tiny peppers are ornamental plants. There are shorter ones with darker leaves and peppers and I grew the tri-color variety from seeds. These were pretty slow to grow but finally turned out how I'd hoped. I have taught the boys how to collect some flower seeds and some of the ones they planted in various locations have started to grow. We've been gathering seeds to start some low water plants to beautify the front of the empty lot.

It's been a decent year for our vegetable garden except the previously mentioned tiny tomatoes. Currently we have way too many cucumbers and we have been giving away cantaloupe right and left.  Thanks to my Dad's very productive apple tree, we have been bottling some delicious applesauce and I've started on tomatoes from his patch. We had the usual blackberries, raspberries, and peaches. I tried a new variety of butternut squash and we have a dozen or so huge ones, like 20 lbs each. So we'll be handing out some of those next month.

Last, and least, Jared and I painted my art studio at the beginning of the month. It is now "dolphin fin" gray, a good neutral tone. So I used one wall to display artwork of previous professors, local artists, and some dead people like Edgar Degas. I have been invited to exhibit some of my pastel paintings with several other artists for a show at Dixie University so I'll be getting back to work.