New Years

The boys got a big bucket of blocks from great grandma for Christmas & Sean has enjoyed playing with it probably as much as they have. There are blocks all over, all the time now!!!
New Years Eve we hung out at my sisters house a for awhile & then headed home. I ran to the store & then we watched the ball drop with the kids asleep on the couches. That night was pretty rough. Joe caught a nasty cold that kept him up several nights with a high temperature. That night was the beginning.
The next day we were all exhausted & pretty much sat around the house in & out of sleep.
Joe loves to pick at his brother as he sleeps...

and LOVES to "fix" things at the tool bench
and couldn't get enough of staring at himself in the mirror when we hadn't hung it yet.

Since our day had been lazy, we took a drive out into the dessert just to get out of the house a little. I started my New Years resolution of taking a picture every day and started posting them on a new BLOG.





when I met Sean I gained the appreciation of finding beauty in the desert that I never really had before.
We closed the night by hanging out with family. My sister who was visiting was leaving the next day & I wanted to see them one last time.
Here is Brig, who is the cutest, most chub baby ever that I want to squeeze!!!


jookies

Phily too

I desperately tried all night to get some pictures of Adam, Sam, Hyrum & Joe..not too successful!
I love this picture.. Sam being a troublemaker.. Adam looks like he is gonna lose it!
Joey tried all night to destroy Phil & Melissa's house, piece by piece.. ornament by ornament... have I ever mentioned how much they LOVE when we come over :)

Picture of the family together ( minus Tam & Wendi)

The holidays were fun... mostly. The past 2 nights with Sam have become repeats of Joe the week prior & I'm beginning to think our ward thinks we are inactive. Minus all the throw ups & colds that we've been dealing with- we had a good holiday season :)

Christmas

I had to put the cutest picture ever in here...
that little boy is a mini-Sean! This was Christmas Eve just as everyone was starting to get ready to settle down for the night.

We left cookies out for Santa because Sammy fell asleep before he could- but we couldn't forget since he spent the afternoon making them!
Mommy spent the night wrapping presents that should have been done a long time before that!

The next morning, Santa left the boys an awesome tool bench!!





It was complete with a measuring tape & a flashlight for each of the boys. They LOVED it :)

The boys also got a pretty absurd amount of guns for Christmas & I didn't realize it til the presents were opened & I was ambushed with lots of "bullets"
Only down side to Christmas... halfway through opening presents, while he was sitting in my lap, Joe started throwing up. Yuck!!! Not the best Christmas on record. Needless to say, church didn't happen that day.
Later on in the afternoon we went over to Sean's moms house to open presents. The boys got some great blocks & skates & cars & guns... everything boys love :)
that evening Sean's sister & brothers came & helped us eat an amazing prime rib that Sean smoked. It was sooo good! twice baked potatoes, rolls, sparkling cider.. perfect!!
We closed the day by seeing Sean's dad who gave the boys some little cars.
These boys made out like bandits!
It was a fun week. We got to spend lots of time with family & friends. Minus the sickness that then spread to Sam the very next day & the colds that are running their course now.. good times :)

Christmas Eve

I thought I was ready for Christmas by the Eve, but I ended up spending all morning running around for that one last thing I had just forgot. By noon I was home & Tiffany & David came over to help us make cookies for Santa.
The boys helped pour out ingredients & then ran around & played & had fun together.
Joey is so funny.. he kept trying to lick the spatula when there was only butter & sugar on it.. yuck!!!
That evening we went to my parents for our annual Christmas pageant & gift exchange. The Battraws gave us some fun pampered chef cooking things & the boys got Candyland!! Which they beg to play daily.

Chelle, Phil, Melissa, Wendi & Todd
Joc, Aniston, Nanc & Janet

Dad, aunt Shirl & Uncle Frank
Julia & Max
super happy :)
Joesy the cutie
Des hugging Joe
The wisemen bringing gifts



After we got back home, Sean started a fire in the fireplace & lit all the lumineres he spent so long setting up. It looked awesome :) I spent the rest of the evening wrapping presents I should have already done & praying I had enough tape & paper. At the end it was looking a little scary, but to my relief, I found an extra roll hiding in my closet !



Each year I get a little better at being more prepared & less stressed- but that's still not saying to much!!!
My favorite part of the day was singing Joy to the World with all of my family surrounding me. It made every second of the season feel ok :)

catch up

December has come, & almost gone... & my blogging has suffered. So I'm going to do a fast forward catch up to get us to Christmas!
I had another birthday at the beginning of the month & had to work all day on my birthday & deal with some not so good news that made it kinda worse than just any other day. The next day everything was resolved, so it wasn't too bad- but definitely a birthday I'm already trying to forget!!

On the 10th of the month we finally got around to putting the tree up & my pictures are not the best, because I was spending a large majority of the time trying to clean up broken ornaments... hey- that sounds like most of this month!! Needless to say- I've been looking at Christmas clearance to replace alot of ornaments!!!
of course, we listened to Kenny & Dolly while we "trimmed" the tree. It was slight a bit more chaos than I had anticipated, but we made it through without me going completely crazy!


The next week we headed out to a favorite spot out in the desert to attempt a family picture. Holy cow! Why did I think a tri-pod & my timer would not take me to the brink of a psychotic episode?

Here was one decent picture we got.
but this picture show everyone's personalities pretty well: Joe is lala land- Sean semi-smiling- me happy go lucky- Sam goofing off.

after much cropping- a semi decent picture of Sammy boy
The very next day I took the boys & their cousin David out to get some pictures to give their grandparents for Christmas. Yet, another crazy feat- 150 pictures later & only 3 to chose from....





Sean & Sammy
Tiffy & David
The view from Bulldog canyon
Mommy & Joey

We stayed late & cooked out over the campfire. The weather was amazing!!! I didn't even need a sweatshirt that night!!
and through this all, we started potty training Sammy. It's been hard work, but well worth it! We finally just decided one day there would be no more diapers!!!! Sam threw a fit, but we stuck to our guns. After only 2 days he has been dry every night since!! He has occasional accidents, but is still trying to get the whole #2 thing down, but its a work in progress!!!
This was after a very successful day- gelato for a treat :)

Last week my sister came into town for the holidays & we took our boys to Bass Pro Shop for their Santa's workshop. Unfortunately we got there too late to get a ticket to see Santa, but lucky for Adam, we got there in plenty of time to play shooting games, which he did not want to leave. Me & Aunt Nancie, & the rest the boys checked out the fishy's & the quads.


This was 2 days before Christmas. We have found the boys sleep the best when they are near someone else... therefore- a trundle bed is in the near future!