Winter Fun

Dennis was able to take off almost a whole week during the kids holiday break from school. We got a lot of work that needed to be done, done and we ahd some fun times. We played a lot of games, did some traveling and spent an afternoon and the hills for some winter fun. The plan was to go sledding, which we did some of, but riding the 4-wheelers was a lot more fun. Goes faster and you typically do not get snow all over your face from it. We did get to try out Ryan's new snowboard, that was fun. Julia liked making snowangels and as always Sawyer just had fun dong whatever. What a fun afternoon.

Mickey Clubhouse

Sawyer absolutley loves mickey mouse, he calls him mickey clubhouse, from the program on the disney channel. Everytime we go into a store he points out anything mickey mouse and screams. He loves to wear the underwear that have mickey mouse on them. This day he was watchign mickey clubhouse, with his mickey and his mickey balnket, what a ham! I love it.

Noland Christmas party

Another Christmas party. This is Dennis's mom's side of the family. They are really good about getting together every Christmas to have a party. They are also very keen on picking themes for parties. This year they pick truck stops as the theme. So we all bought presents for each other at truck stops and the food was themed around that. So we had nachos and hot dogs. Fun times. The kids had a blast and I thought that the most fun thing was watching all us grown-ups play fruit basket(Christmas basket).

Ryan's Big #8

On December 15th Ryan celebrated his 8th birthday. On his actual birthday we went to dinner at wendys and then we went to see Bolt in 3D. Ryan loved it. The next day he had a birthday party with his friends. He chose a bingo/game theme for his party. I made him a bingo cake, super easy, which is why I did it. At his party they played bingo, ate pizza and cake, had a scavenger hunt and jumped on his trampoline. The tramp was what we got him for his birthday. I guess I have not taken any pictures of him on it yet, but he sure loves it even if it is not the most fun present to get in the winter

Trip to SLC

As a fmaily we love to go somewhere and spend the night and just have fun. We spend a lot of time at Litle America. We love to swim there and we love the restuarant there. We just wish they had frequent stay credits. Anyhow we went to Utah to do soem Christmas shopping, since there is no where to shop around here. We spent the night at Little America and went to temple square. There was this most awesome gingerbread house at Littl;e America. I always say that I wm going to make gingerbread houses with my kids and I never do, so at least we have a picture with one.

Temple square

One of my favorite things about Christmas is going to temple square. I remember going there when I was a kid and I loved it then also. I love the spirit that you feel there and the beauty of the lights. The nativity scene has been changed since the last time that I was there and I love it. I hope that this is a tradition that we will continue forever.

Christmas Program

It is always so much fun to watch the kids in their school Christmas programs. It is funny to watch all the kids up there looking for their parents and then to watch them "get into" the music. Julia looked so pretty and had a good tiem preforming. While the 2nd graders were up there the teacher told of a boy who rewrote the Christmas song, it was Ryan. He has become quite the little musician this year. We got the kids a karoke machine for Christmas and he is always o that thing singi camp rock songs.

The Annual Christmas Letter Picture

Well I had determined awhile ago that I was going to send out Christmas cards early this year. Since we have moved every year for about 4 years and I thought that I would send the cards out early so that people would have our address. Well, as my story always goes it is only 10 days before Christmas and I am still getting around to getting that done. I have taken the pictures of the kids and I also orderd the Christmas card, now if Dennis could just write the letter, we would be good to go. Except that I still have to address and mail everything. It is too bad that I am such a procratinator, maybe next year we will send out Thanksgiving cards or just not move and that would help also. Anyhow, if our cards do not make it to you all before Christmas, know that we think of you all often and hope that you have a very Merry Christmas and that the Savior's birth rings with joy in your hearts.

Let the Christmas parties begin

Dennis's sisters and their families decided to come to WY for a little trip. So we decided to meet up with them in Baggs for a little family Christmas party. Dennis's brother from Laramie was suppose to come also, but did not make it because of the weather. So there was going to be 5 of the 6 siblings there, so we thought it was a great opportunity. Getting all the family together is hard work. in the end there were 4 of the 6 siblings, with their families there so it turned out good. We had a little Christmas exchange and played games. Great Christmas fun.

It's beginning to look alot like Chirstmas

Tonight we put up are Christmas tree. The kids had alot of fun digging out there own ornaments from previous years. They got them all out and put them in order. It was cute to see how much they appreciated it. This was really Sawyer's first time to really understand what was happening and he loves the Christmas tree. He just kept pointing to it and saying "Christmas tree"! The kids loved putting the ornaments on the tree and I must say that they are getting really good at it, because I looked at it when they were done and I did not feel like I needed to rearrange once they were asleep. Maybe I am getting better at them decorating the tree also

Generations

I remeber very little of my great grandparents, but the few things that I remember are good. I remember tea parties with my great grandma Berrier, some sort of farming with my great grandpa Gross, the kitchen table and stove at my great grandma Gross's house, and stories from my great grandma Bird. I hope that my children will remember the great times that they are able to have with their great grandparents. i hope just hearing their names will bring back grand memories. I hope that when they think of Thanksgiving, they will remember their great grandpa Updike playing the harmonica for them to dance to and their great grandma Updike's delicious food.

Thanksgiving

I was reading a blog post from Thanksgiving of one of my friends and she wrote about the tradition of the five kernals of corn. You tell five things that you are thankful for. I am not sure if this is her family tradition or a traditional tradition, if you know what I mean, but I think that I am going to start this tradition myself. Feel free to steal the idea with me. Hopefully next year I will remember and I can have my kids and hubby participate also.
Any how here goes
1-The one thing that I am most thankful for is my Savior. When I was thinking about what I was most grateful for I realized that without Him and the Gospel, I would not have anything else to be grateful for. I am truly blessed that I know who my Savior is and that He loves me.
2- Dennis=I truly believe that I have the most wonderful husband in the whole world. (sorry everyone) I truly mean it. It takes an incredibel person to be my husband and Dennis does an outstanding job. I am so grateful that he is mine and that i get to be with him forever.
3-My kids!!! Ryan, Julia and Sawyer. Some days it might feel as though I was crazy to have kids, but as I always say everything is equal in opposites. For all the hard times that my kids give me there is always something that is so great that weighs it out. And to be completely honest there is way more great then hard. My kids bring me the most joy.
4- The holiday season. there is nothing greater then a time of year when I believe that everyone thinks about others. Admist the wants and sometimes greediness, I really think that everyone, at least once, thinks about someone else. What a great time of year.
5-temporal blessing- my home, Dennis's job, all those things that some people do not have. Sometimes, well maybe more then sometimes, I have more then I need, but I am truly grateful that I do not have to go hungry, cold or lonely.

I had a great Thanksgiving, with my extended family. It was a great kickoff for the whole holiday season.

Reading

I love to read to my kids, but I even love it more when I catch them reading, (or looking) at books. I am a lover of books, in fact i cannot even get a book if there is something that I have to get done, because once i pick up a book everything gets ignored. If there is one thing that i can say that I have taught my kids, it is to love books. There is nothing that makes them more happy then to read books and the best part, they are always the best behaved when they have a book.

Ryan Basketball

Ryan did the mini wolf basketball camp again this year and I must say he is becoming quite the little b-ball player. He is so cute. he really loves it and the best part is he is always so willing to put alot of work into it. Every night that he came home he wanted to go shoot hoops to get better. Nothing better then a hard worker. He really liked to play in the games and was even able to score in each game that he played, the best part- the smile he tried to hide so "cooly" after he made a shot and was trying hard not to let us all know how awesome it was.

Halloween

Nothing is funner then getting dressed up and getting free candy. Sawyer wanted to be batman, but we had a hard time finding a batman costume that was his size. So we talked him into being a skeleton. He loved it and when ever he saw someone he would growl at them, thinking that he was scaring them. Totally in character. Julia informed me early in the month that she wanted to be a girl vampire. I wondered why not a princess and then we settled on a witch. What has happened to my little girl? She was a cute witch though, not a scary one and then when someone accidentally took her black dress at school, she became a pumpkin princess. I was very happy, maybe she is not as grown up as I thought. Ryan was the sole designer of his mountain man costume. He saved up money and went to the mountain man rendezvous and purchased his own leather and then had me sew his costume. He hot glued the extras on there himself. He was very proud of his costume. I was very proud of him also.

Carving pumpkins

We had a lot of fun this year carving pumpkins. We let the kids design their own pumpkins and we did the cutting. It went alot faster than it has in the past because Dennis was a carver and not a designer. Also we waited until the night before halloween to carve and jsut cut the top off and did not gut the pumpkins. I would really recommend this, no mess and a lot faster. and you do not have to worry about them rotting because you are going to throw them away the next day. The kids love halloween and this was a great night before activity.

Pumpkin patch

We went to a pumpkin patch in Ut with my mom, mandy and Gabby. THere was a lot of fun to have. When we got to go pick the pumpkins again personalities emerged. Sawyer pick the first pumpkins that he came to that he could hold and was easily persuaded to change to a pumpkin that I liked better. Julia had to find the most pretty pumpkin, and since pumpkins are not very pretty settled with a green one that looked like a witch. Ryan had to be hurried because he was taking so much time. The trailer was waiting for him to go back. he wanted the biggest pumpkin that he could find. I had made a rule that he could get whatever pumpkin he wanted as long as he carried it out. SO he was having a hard time because the ones he wanted he could not carry. he finally picked one and only was able to carry in a part of the way back to the trailer. I ended up carrying it most of the way, what can I say at least i tried.

Fall fun

We spent one Saturday in october at my mom's house with my sister Mandy and her family. We spent the morning out in the yard playing in the leaves. Just enjoying the beautiful fall weather. Fall is my most favorite season. I love the brisk weather and the clothes that oyu wera in the fall and the lovely colors and everything that it means. To me fall means family. WE had a lot of fun with cousin Gabby and all the leaves and candy.

Brothers

i always thought that having kids close together that are of the same sex, but i think that the relationship between Ryan and Sawyer is so precious. Ryan is 5 1/2 years older than Sawyer. Ryan is always eager to read to Sawyer, who is very receptive of this. The play really well together and the older they get the closer that they get.

teachers

Well since it is almost the third month of school I guess I missed the whole first day of school blog, but here are a picture with each of the kids and their teachers. Julia is in Mrs. Gamble's class. She is a very good teacher accademically, and very strict. I have learned that julia is very sensitive. I am not sure if it is the long kindergarten days or her strict teacher, or a combination, but Julia has been in tears more than oncce. She likes her teacher and I am so impressed with what she is learning already. Ryan's teacher is Mrs. Beery, Ryan seems to like her and is doing well this year. His high light is that his class voted him to student council. He likes it, I am not sure what they do besides have before school meetings twice a month, but he is proud to be in it, so I am happy