The Armed Forces Bowl!

Nana and Granddad came to visit a few days after Christmas!  We had a fun couple of days with them.  We took Granddad to see the Muppet Movie, but the best part of their visit was that they took us to the Armed Forces Bowl to see BYU play.  Brooklynn and Josh had never been to a BYU game before and Tyler was convinced he was bad luck because both games he had been to BYU had lost.  The game was played at Ford Stadium at SMU and it was a fantastic little place to watch football. Our seats were perfect, the weather was gorgeous and there was not wind.  It could not have been a better day!  Especially because the football game was great and BYU pulled out the win in the end!

We were lucky to see the paratroopers land in the stadium.
There was also a fly over which I always think is really cool!

Ice Skating

I grew up Ice Skating.  As a little girl I remember heading down to Bowness Park and skating.  I remember when I learned to skate pushing a chair and I remember taking 'figure skating' lessons one time as well.  So when the invitation came to take the kids skating we were all in! 

Before we went I made sure we all had some gloves.  The kids were most worried because I told them about the time when I was 10 or so that I was skating with my cousin without my mittens and I fell and she skated over my pinkie slicing it open!  Yikes - I still have the scar too. 

Steve came with us, but decided not to get skates (I will say for the record that I have not ever seen him skate and technically don't know if he can).  We got all the kids including Noah into their skates and off we went.  Tyler took off by himself and spent half the time on the ice - let's just say this kid is no hockey player.  Brook went off with her friend Sydney, who spent the time trying to hold her up.  I took a few laps by myself to get my feet under me (it had been a few years) and then I helped Josh figure it out.  I would take a lap with Josh and then he would rest and I would take a lap with Noah.  Noah did great, I just kept telling him to walk his feet and he would pull me. He got tired pretty quickly and I finally had Steve take his skates off.  By the end Josh was going around by himself and doing great!  Ty had gotten the hang of it, although he did fall and hit his head and Brook was doing great!  We had so much fun and I can't wait until we can go again!

I didn't get very many pics, but one of my friends was taking some, so she will send me some too!

Christmas....

This year was the FIRST, yes that is right, the very FIRST year we had Christmas all by our very lonesome.  We didn't go anywhere and we didn't have anyone coming to our house.  A few weeks before Christmas Steve was most concerned and didn't want us to be lonely, so he almost convinced me to drive to Idaho - ALMOST! 

Despite the fact that we were all alone, we had a wonderful vacation and we did some fun things with the kids!  I enjoyed spending time with my little family and love them so much!  One of the funniest things was when Steve decided that we absolutely had to move the Christmas Tree from upstairs down to the family room.  This required moving the piano over as well.  I was not pleased with this idea, but I knew putting up a fight was not worth it.  He took my tree apart by section, leaving it deocrated and brought it downstairs section by section.  It was actually very nice to have it in here and next year I will probably put it back in the same spot.

Christmas Eve we did a whole lot of relaxing and baking.  I made peppermint bark, shortbread cookies and spiced peacans. Yummy, those are my favorites! We decided to try to make Steve's Grandma's ribs for dinner - as his family did growing up.  That with some funeral potatoes and some other yummy's made for a wonderful dinner!

After dinner, we dropped some goodies off to our neighbor and drove around looking at some Christmas lights.  We did miss the great lights we used to go see in Fresno, but the kids still enjoyed it and Noah thought it was fun.  Once we were home, we watch some of the movie Joy to the World, we read our traditional story called, 'Teach the Children' and the kids opened their Christmas PJ's.  Noah thought opening one gift meant open season on everything else under the tree and was a little diappointed when he had to wait!

As always Christmas morning came very quickly.  Because of the layout of our house, we told the kids that they could call me on my cell phone from the home phone, but under no circumstances could they come downstairs to our room.  I am happy to say, I have very or should I say mostly obedient kids and they did just that.  The rule is they must brush their teeth and make their beds before we can open presents.  They were spilling over with excitement and although I tried to stall we finally allowed them down to see what Santa brought!  Noah was cute and really trying to figure it all out. 

Noah with his new basketball, it was what he wanted most and he
has shown it to everyone he can.

Brook with her stash, she got a CD player/karaokee machine

Ty got some mini basketball hoops we mounted in the game room.

Tater got a lighsaber light that he got to assemble himself with My help! 

Our morning was wonderful and we finished it off with some Scotch Stew (Yummy!) and this year I tried Ebelskeevers - they turned out pretty good too!  After all was winding down, we got ready and headed to church!  I had to get a photo of my childrens in front of the tree all dressed up and man did they look good! 

I LOVE LOVE LOVE Christmas and this year was no different.  I feel so blessed to have an Amazing Healthy family.

Stadium Tour!

This week we decided to take the kids on a tour of Cowboys Stadium. We went with our new neighbors and had a spectacular time. The Herlehy’s have 4 adorable little boys and all the kids and the men had a fantastic time. I’m not saying I didn’t enjoy it, I thought it was awesome, but the men were just like the kids! The Stadium is amazing and we were able to play around on the field for as long as we wished. I almost had to drag Steve off the field. We also saw the Cowboys Locker Room (really nice), the Interview Room and the girls saw the Cheerleaders locker room ( the boys were too busy on the field!). Everyone working at the Stadium was super friendly, we even had one of the Older Men working there come over and throw some passes to the little boys. Brooklynn got in the mix too and was trying to catch some passes, she is the best sport when it comes to doing the ‘boy’ things that are required when you have 3 brothers! And don’t think for 1 minute that she doesn’t have a Pink Tony Romo Jersey – of course she does!