Santa.

Mataya loves Santa! She couldn't wait to sit on his lap.

Parker had a very lengthy list to share.

Spencer was shy and only asked for a bell! (a bell from Santa's sleigh)

Christmas.

We spent a few days leading up to Christmas at my parent's house. The boys went outside and shot some pumpkins.

They went for a hike one day and brought back their treasures. They put together a cow skeleton on the porch. My dad said to Parker, "Hey, I'll get you a garbage bag and you can take all those home." Parker said, "OKAY!!" Grandpa was messing with him, but you better believe he would have taken those home in a heartbeat!

We came home on Christmas eve about 9:30. We found our doorstep loaded with goodies and presents. Those helped sustain us well into the night getting the goods ready. Spencer is holding up his Angry Bird.

The little princess was right in her element!

Parker got his art set and a huge roll of paper. He went right to work and tracing his little sister.

Mataya topless in the kitchen hard at work. At least she has pants on!

Check! Parker got a glass chess set and Cory taught him how to play. Now all Parker wants to do is play chess. It's really fun and makes you think!

The Christmas day nap is a must!

frontrunner, temple square.

As part of our advent calendar for Christmas this year one of our activities was to ride Frontrunner to Temple Square and see the lights.

Mataya was a little angry here.

Mataya would not turn around. She's strong willed, that one!

Lighting struck Parker in this one and again Mataya is being difficult!

It was a lot of fun and we ate dinner at J.B.'s across from Temple Square and while sipping hot chocolate and waiting for our food to come Spencer said, "This is the BEST vacation ever!"

Santa's got the best seat in the house.

One day we were driving along and Parker says, "Look! It's Santa!" We weren't sure what he was talking about and then, sure enough, we saw Santa sitting on top of a Buffalo on the roof of a tire store.

I did NOT see that coming!

helping hands.

After the big Davis County wind storm we decided to check out my grandparents house in Kaysville. It was hit pretty hard and their two huge trees were down. It was just incredible to see these trees just ripped out of the ground and laying there. Their wonderful neighbors helped out so much.

The next door neighbor had been hard at work cutting the limbs off.

We brought some garbage bags and picked up some debris and apples that were scattered all over their yard. Spencer was so excited the whole time and said, "This doesn't even feel like work, it's SO fun!"

thanksgiving in s.d.

South Dakota, that is! We got to visit Cory's family over Thanksgiving. It was wonderful and Kay and Spike spoil us with good times and amazing food.

We met up with Cory's grandmother Jean and went to The Journey Museum. Jean has an item on display at this museum and can always get in for free and get tickets for any of her guests. We were immediately won over when we saw a triceratops skull in the entrance. And I 'm not sure what Mataya was wearing, our motto with that girl is "just roll with it"!

Spencer digging for a dinosaur bone.

And Parker checking out some deer antlers.

These boys are obsessed with birds. And Spencer's face is saying, "I'm too cool for school."

This picture describes the picture above it. This is the item of Jean's that is on display. It's a human hair wreath. It took Phoebe 27 years to make. It it really amazing and so detailed! How cool it was to show our kids something in a museum that belonged to their ancestor!

Spencer was like 85% sure that cougar blinked.

These were the bulk of the pictures I took from our trip there. We had such a wonderful time. Cory took the boys to a hockey game, the boys went hunting the day after Thanksgiving while the girls shopped, we ate at Taco John's, the kids did a little sledding, and we made it home safe and we sure enjoyed visiting the Wild West!

sewing.

Ahh, I have a computer again. If it wasn't past midnight I'd upload some pictures and try to catch up, but...later.
Earlier this week I was looking through my craft container (my cedar chest at the end of my bed) and found some material me and the boys had bought over a year ago with the intention of making pillow cases. It was all washed and neatly folded. I turned to Parker and asked him if he wanted to learn how to sew. He said sure. That kid is up for anything! So I taught him how to measure, pin, cut and get it just right to sew. Then I got him set up at the table with the sewing machine and gave him all the proper instructions. He did a practice run on a scrap of fabric and then it was time to sew the pillowcase. I stood next to him and just made sure the fabric stayed straight while he ran it through the machine. He did it totally by himself! It was one of my favorite mom moments ever. And to add to his excitement the bobbin ran out of thread half way through, so we had to wind the bobbin. Pure excitement!
He was so proud of his new pillowcase that he made all by himself....he's already planning his next sewing projects. I see a few more pillowcases in our future:-)

Wind.

I haven't had a computer for a couple of weeks. Makes blogging a little difficult. Our laptop crapped out and had to get a new hard drive...yadda yadda! Thank you iPhone for making this post possible while in the comfort of my bed. I was about to set my alarm for the morning when I remembered that school is cancelled for tomorrow due to all the wind. Parker always wanted a snow day, but tomorrow he gets a wind day and he's pretty happy. Mostly because he wants to go to Subway for lunch. We probably will, that kid is a born salesman:-)
I wonder how many trampolines blew into the Great Salt Lake today. Cory said probably 700 or so. Give or take. Cory was driving down a residental street and a trash can was blowing along side him and actually going faster than him. We thought we left the wind behind us when we traveled home from South Dakota for Thanksgiving. Wyoming and South Dakota each have a PhD in "Windology" if you will. We are such one-uppers here in Utah. As we were returning home after the 11 hour drive Spencer said "Mom thanks for taking me to the Wild West!" I love that boy!
We got our Christmas tree and decorations up yesterday. Then our beautifully decorated tree tipped over twice tonight, I stepped on one too many ornament hooks and I almost cancelled Christmas. But to make up for my feisty mood I ran and grabbed a dozen doughnuts for the family. Mataya promplty ate the chocolate frosting off of two of them. Atta girl, she's got just enough Blackwell in her:-)

more family pics.

Here are a few more pictures I wanted to post of our little family. I should really put a family picture on the header of my blog, but I just love that picture too much:-)

apples.

We had our annual apple picking party in my grandparents backyard. They have 2 apple trees and we go and help them pick them every fall. The kids were really helpful this year and each wanted to have a turn on the ladder. I didn't take too many pictures, but Parker took a nice one of their birds in the apple tree.

So needless to say we've been eating lots of apples. Applesauce, apple juice, apple fritters....you get the picture:-)

trunk or treat.

Here are the kids at the annual trunk or treat/chili cook off. Spencer is a wolf, but decided not to wear his head piece.

Parker did the scars on his face:-)

Ladybug and wicked witch!

And then there was Po from Kung Fu Panda! It was a big hit.

Happy Halloween!