Christmas 2009

Christmas Morning: We woke up to a wonderful Christmas and then packed everything and headed to Cedar City.

Cooter got a little rider toy

Tyler with Optimus Prime

We don't have a picture of Kaelynn because I am using the camera she got from Santa to take these picture

As I mentioned Kaelynn got a camera for Christmas. She was happy to use it. Here is a picture of the back of my seat as we are on our way to Cedar City.

When we got to Cedar City we opened more presents. Cooter is happy with his new toy

The day after Christmas we went to Zion Park to hike and play. Then we went to Aunt Louise's for lunch. Kaelynn of course had her camera here are a few pictures she took.

This one is actually pretty good.

Self photo

Picture out of car window

That's our van. She was riding in Grandpa's car.

We went on a trail and here are some pictures from that.

Since Kaelynn couldn't see any real deer she just took a picture of a picture

I took this picture of Kaelynn and Tyler with grandma

Kaelynn took this picture of me.

Stairs at Aunt Louise's house. The kids loved playing on them. Kaelynn loved this so much she took a picture of them.

Our last day at Grandma's we went up to Woods Ranch and did some sledding. We had a great time. It was such a fun Christmas vacation. We love grandma's house. Now it's time to clean up Christmas and get things back to normal (whatever that is!).

Kaelynn and Tyler couldn't get enough

Santa

Ho Ho Ho! Here is what the kids asked for:

Kaelynn - A warm blanket (this was funny because all along she has been asking for a camera.) Next year we are going to make her ask for shoes that fit, a coat and food!

Tyler - Lego Indian Jones

Caleb - Seems to be happy with just the candy cane

Grandma Excell

My Grandma Helen passed away two days after her 86th birthday on Dec 12th. She was an amazing lady. I will miss her. Love you Grandma.

Christmas Time

Christmas Time is upon us. I have all my decorations up, my calender planned, and Christmas cards will be mailed next week! Letters have been written to Santa, and we have all had enough oranges to give us an overdose of Vitamin C. While decorating Kaelynn found my small nativity set and I told her to set it up on the piano. The picture shows exactly how she set it up. I love how she placed all the people to be looking at the baby Jesus. When I asked the kids what Christmas was about they all said "presents and Santa Claus". We are trying to help them understand the true meaning and I think they are understanding it better. I do know they know about Jesus and love Him because of moments like this:

Turkey shoot

My family had a Turkey shoot. It was cold and windy but we had fun. Here is how everyone did.

Kaelynn: Future sharp shooter

Mom: Best judge and Eskimo

Jeff: "Best clay pigeon thrower"

Dad: Overall winner of the golden turkey (a bag of M&M's and 5 dollars)

Ben C: Best stance

Bryan: Runner up and best at withstanding the cold

Laura: Rooky of the year

Austen: Most creative with the shells

Tana: Most likely to win next year

Ben E: Runner up and best lefty

Hurricane Sand Dunes

We went to St. George for Thanksgiving with Ben's family. On Friday we went to the Sand Dunes. It was so fun. The kids loved it. The best part was the weather. It was a lovely 65 degrees. No coats! We had a great time.

Kaelynn by Sand Hollow lake. It was beautiful. And yes we did see some crazy people water skiing.

Dirt bike dad and Kaelynn

Tyler on the 4-Wheeler

Caleb eating a sand covered licorice.

Birthday party and Grandma

I had a birthday party for Kaelynn on Saturday. Can you believe she is 6? I had a "cooking" party for her and her friends. I found these cute aprons that came with a chef hat at the dollar store (SCORE!) We made pizzas, fruit kabobs and frosted cupcakes. Kaelynn had such a great time. Thanks to all her friends who came and made her day so much fun (and for the fun new toys!)

My mom come to visit last weekend. We had a dang good time. When she came her hair had a bad weave job and had uneven layers. So we decided to play "beauty shop". We got her hair cut and colored. And now she looks awesome. Thanks mom for coming. LOVE YA!

New PJ's from Grams & Gramps

Halloween

We started out by carving pumpkins on Wednesday night

Tyler (with the help of Dad) carved this Mickey and Caleb got a happy face. Kaelynn and I did a spider, but I forgot to take a picture of it. Tyler's Mickey got good reviews from the all the Trick-or-Treaters!

Here is Tyler's Joy School party.

Kaelynn's school Halloween parade

Kaelynn's classroom party. I helped with it and it was fun.

So, Halloween day was kind of funny because two of the three kids ended up being different things then I had planned. Caleb was a frog because his yoda costume was too much of a bother (and the green face paint ended up on the carpet. Not good!) and the frog was going to be a lot warmer. And Kaelynn was also worried about being too cold in her fairy outfit so we put together a witch costume at 4pm on Halloween day. I am just glad they were happy.

Let's get candy!!

Ready to go!!

Ben took the kids while I stayed home to pass out candy. Here they are with our good friends the Gillespies.

It was a busy week, but lots of fun!

The birthday boys!!

Caleb had his birthday on Oct. 30. 1 YEAR OLD! He is so cute and fun. He is walking around and bumping his head on everything. So if you notice bruises it isn't because we beat our children. Here he is eating his birthday brownie. I made a birthday cake with Tana at my mom's house, but I didn't get the pictures for that.

And here is Tyler. He turned 4 on Nov 1st. We celebrated his birthday with his best buddy, Josh. We took them to Kangaroo Zoo (no, you don't see real Kangaroos it's a bounce house). I made this cake. (I know it's shocking). It is a motorcycle track, but they already took the motorcycles off when I took the pictures.
Here is Tyler with his favorite present from Mom an Dad. It's Bumblebee. He loves it!
I took them to the Dr. today for their well check ups and they both are doing good. They did get flu shots, but other then that it was good.

Tooth Fairy

Kaelynn lost her first tooth on Monday. This is how she describes her experience:

"My tooth was hanging by a tooth hair and so my dad pulled it out because he is really strong"

Her other front bottom tooth is loose it should come out in the next week or so.

Halloween Party

My mom always has a really fun Halloween party. This year it was early so we could all be there. I think what make this party so fun is that EVERYONE dresses up. We have a good dinner and play games. What good memories! We had such a great weekend in Cedar City. I loved staying up until 1am and laughing so hard I cried, my brothers are a HOOT!

Kaelynn and Tyler at the fishing pond. What will they get?

Jedi knights - Luke and Yoda (and don't know what Jedi Ben is)

Pixie Hollow fairies - Iridessa and Tinkerbell