We want to know your favorite part about this Christmas or any Christmas!

Courtney said..."My favorite part about Christmas is the stockings, the excitement, and the Christmas morning breakfast. It's the only breakfast I really make each year and it carries on my mother's tradition and reminds me of home."


Londyn said..."My favorite part about Christmas is opening presents and celebrating the birth of Jesus. I kept waking up all night long and couldn't wait to get out of bed in the morning."


Adam said..."My favorite part about this Christmas is playing with toys and sledding with my family. My favorite toy this year was a Mickey Mouse Clubhouse."


Lucy said...."dabadabadee, dabadabadoo!"

Ryan said..."My favorite part about this year was laying in bed pretending to be asleep as the kids came upstairs to see what Santa brought them. Listening to the giggles and wows and ooohs and screams as the kids dove into their stockings and Santa gifts. And then they came running into our room to wake us up by jumping on the bed. We let them come back two or three times, each time begging us to get out of bed...even though we were awake the whole time. That was my favorite part."

Christmas Day Sledding

Getting ready for Christmas!

The kids are so excited for Christmas they can hardly stand it. They want to tear into their presents today if mom and dad would only let them. Courtney told the kids today that she was going to put a sign on our roof telling Santa not to come unless they shape up. Somehow, I think Santa will still come to our house. We don't have a chimney though so we're not quite sure how he's going to get in, but he does have magical powers so he'll figure out a way. The kids are excited to make him cookies and leave some food for the reindeer. We will spend Christmas eve reading the Christmas story, the kids will be allowed to open one gift, and we'll indulge in delicious goodies reserved just for the occasion. We'll try to post more pictures on Christmas day after things settle down and we change out of our pajamas....sometime around 3pm.

Burr!!!

Old man winter might be here for a while. Just when we think the snow is going away, we get more...and more...and more. We will be enjoying a very white Christmas this year! And with all the snow comes the building of snowmen, sledding, skiiing, and evening horseback rides through the snow.

Londyn's Birthday

Londyn had a very white birthday on the first day of December. It snowed pretty much all day. As you can see the birthday theme was horses. Courtney usually makes birthday cakes and does a great job, but this time she wanted to spend her energy elsewhere. Adam got a little excited to taste the cake and 'accidently' put his hand in it before the party. He's seven and I can't blame him, sugar is a kid's best friend! (And the dentist's too)

Londyn invited about 8 of her closest friends over to the party(that lasted for 5 hours). Did I mention it lasted for 5 hours? She is definitely the social child of the family. The plan was to ride the horse for an hour or so, but the corral turned to snow and mud and the horse smelled like....wet horse, so we skipped that part. There was a horse pinata, and horse presents, pizza and a horse cake, and a non-horse movie Bratz, and some time to play the games that 10 year old girls like to play, and time to build a fort. And time for Adam to have a blast annoying every last one of the girls as much as he possibly could. What else was he supposed to do? At least he didn't dress down as Underwear Boy while they were here so we'll count that as a successful party! Imagine whity-tighties and a large red/black cape and you have now experienced Underwear Boy, except he runs very fast and comes out of nowhere, oddly similar to streaking....and he did not learn that from me! That I know of! Heaven help him!

Thanks to Grandmas and Grandpas for the presents they sent. She'll spend many hours with those gifts. As parents we deprived her of the one present she wanted, a metal detector and opted instead for Courtney to take her shopping. Londyn was still pretty excited about that and I have a feeling the shopping sprees are only going to get more expensive as the years go by. I wonder if that counts as a hardship for a 401k withdrawal?

Londyn had a great day and she was sad to see it end. One day soon birthdays won't be about horses and ponies and dolls and that makes her Dad sad! But for this year she's 10 and 16 will just have to wait!!

Londyn and a few of her friends

Lucy's acquired tastes!

What else is there to say? Not all kids enjoy the taste of dirt, but this one does. What drives a child to eat dirt? Is it their mother's cooking? Is it the taste of bottled baby food? The endless supply of blah baby crackers? Maybe simply a lack of parental supervision? Or perhaps it's the taste of a dry gritty substance transforming into a pudding like dessert that captures their interest. Some kids like it, while others won't touch the stuff. It obviously won't kill you. The dirt after all is somewhat clean which brings up another question, is there such a thing as clean dirt? I think most men would say that it does in fact exist. Whatever your opinion is, one thing is for sure, this kid likes it cause her smile says it's so.

The glamorous side of horse ownership!

Courtney thought she'd be funny by taking pictures as the men in her life scooped poop! Ryan wasn't laughing so much, but Courtney sure was having fun. She felt it necessary to capture the moment on camera. The tides were about to change though. Behind Courtney's back, Kip the horse was thinking, "Oh look, Courtney left the gate open and it's a beautiful evening for a walk. Maybe they won't notice me if I go eat the neighbor's grass. Oh no, they see me, here she comes. I'll leave her a nice surprise right here in the neighbor's yard and then be on my way. Catch me if you can!!"

Ryan popped some popcorn and pulled up a lawn chair cause this was a full blown entertainment extravaganza! The faster Courtney walked, the faster the horse walked. The faster Courtney ran, the faster the horse ran. Ever try to beat a horse in a foot race? A horse that didn't want to be caught? Imagine a runaway horse going through neighbor's yards, running in the street, Courtney getting heckled by drivers passing by, thoughts of looking for a lost horse at the crack of midnight. How much fun were we going to have with this and for how long? Luckily for Courtney that darn horse found a nice old vegetable garden about a block away. So the moral of the story is....horse ownership is not always glamorous, but it is pretty adventurous!

Adam warming up to this horse idea!

Adam wasn't so sure at first, but he was out there riding Kip all by himself today. The kids are all too excited about this and have been very responsible so far, feeding the animals and keeping their water full and fresh and they know that every morning and every night, there are chores to do. We want this to be a great experience for them and it's been great to see how responsible they've been since we moved here.

Londyn and her new best friend Kip!

Londyn looks totally bored and uninterested in this new thing in our backyard. We have to make her get on. Well...not exactly. If you call our house between 3:15pm and 6pm we will not be able to answer the phone. Call us crazy, call us fulfilling a 9 year old's biggest dream. Her name is Kip and she is very kind and gentle with the kids and she'll do just about anything for some sweet molasses oats. If you come by be sure to bring your cowboy boots or in Adam's case, socks!!

Who is that masked man?

Just in case you can't tell, the masked man in the picture is Adam. You probably guessed that already. This outfit has served many purposes this year so far such as, a halloween costume, pajamas, dinner attire, general play clothes, school wear, and out-on-the-town clothes. We suspect this outfit will last for another year or two or atleast until he's 12.

Halloween.....a Family Fright

These pictures are from the ward party. Courtney and Lucy are beautiful good witches, Londyn was a prim and proper queen, Adam was a heroic Batman, and Ryan was a buzzing .....bumblebee....what the??(spandex and all). The best costumes are impromptu, I think! Lucy stole the show of course and later, Courtney couldn't get those eyelashes off without losing a couple layers of eyelid skin(ouch!). On Halloween, maybe Adam will switch costumes with me. Won't that be a fright?

Cousins come to Town

We had an eventful and fun weekend with JJ's family. The kids went to a carnival put on by the city on Friday night and a ward party on Saturday night. Londyn and Jack were hunters, Jolee was a cute cat in a pumpkin, and Jacie just woke up out of bed. Jensen and Lucy had lots of fun too following the older kids and doing what they do best...looking cute!!

Picture of the House

This is a picture of the house a few days ago. We went from fall to early winter all in one week, so many of the trees haven't been able to make the gradual autumn changes that we love so much. What we like most about the house is not the house really, but the land that came with the house. The kids can play outside for hours. We do like the main level living and the full basement and the inside has recently been completely remodelled. The house faces west and we like all the trees on the east, south, and west sides to provide plenty of shade. As you can see there aren't many sidewalks in this little town. Not even a stoplight and that's just the way we like it. It will take us a few more months to really settle in. Until then the To Do List continues to get longer and longer. I like to say 'one project at a time', but right now it's about 5 or 6 at a time. So much to do, not enough time in the day!

Lucy having fun with static electricity

We didn't have too many pictures to add this week, but this is a fun one of Lucy playing on the couch. With all the attention we were giving her and her hair sticking up in every direction, she was having a lot of fun! She also started walking this week and she now wants to run. The kids have a blast playing Hide-from-Lucy in the house. This morning we woke up to two inches of snow on the ground. Everything was white and then it was all gone by 2pm.

Halloween Option # 2

You can tell who's getting the most camera time lately. That's what happens when the older two kids are in school and there's lots of Mommy/Daughter time. We should have you cast votes on her Halloween costume. Witch or princess, princess or witch?? We think she has a very bright future as a..........princess of course:-)

Is it Halloween Yet??

Someone called her the Lemmony Snickets baby with this outfit on. October is just around the corner and Courtney is getting the kids outfitted already and even though it's not Halloween yet, I'd thought I'd post the picture anyway. They'll all change their outfits three times between now and then anyway. It's just a fun holiday to start celebrating early!!

What a goat wants....what a goat eats!!

Coco eats chair....

Coco eats nice pink sweater......

Coco eats Lucy!..... Naughty Coco!

Ridin' Loud and Proud

Got this little beauty a while back and it's amazing to get out on the local backroads. Preferred speed is about 35 mph with no cars in sight. Once in a while I even get my wife out on the road with me and it's hard for us to turn around and come back home.

First Birthday

What would a birthday be without the mess? Courtney and I say she's the most sober baby we've had, but with a smile like this who would believe us? This little girl is an angel straight from heaven.

Coco The Friendly Goat

This picture was originally about the goat, but as you can see

it makes you stop and think about which one's the pet.

Our newest addition

Meet Coco, the newest member of our family. With only one to start with this could easily turn into something more complicated. She's not yet fixed, but not yet breedable either. We really never considered getting a goat until all our neighbors told us how the previous owners had a goat and they would let her eat their weeds too. So far she's just the cutest pet we've ever had and she's very friendly and loves attention. The kids just adore her as you can tell.