Last Christmas update

So as I mentioned on the last post, I am putting up a few more pics of the fun things we got to do this last holiday season. We were lucky enough to be able to see the Christmas lights on Thoroughbred this year with our friends the Beesleys. We had so much fun, I think we have gone every year, but for some reason the kids always find loads of new things to love about the place. We cant wait until next year!

The kids love this giant nutcracker!

As usual the Ward Christmas party delivered our favorite guy in the red suit! We are never disappointed and especially not this year! This Santa happened to be extra special to us this year! I love how Lily is still afraid of Santa!

Christmas

Christmas was wonderful this year! Every year our kids learn more and more and Christmas just keeps getting better and better! This year our older 2 knew more about Christmas than I expected, meaning they knew it was more about the birth of Jesus than about Santa and getting presents and that is just exciting to us! This year we even got Jacob and Lily to think more about giving than getting and provided them with a list of jobs they could do to earn money, and they both did very well earning quarters here and there. They were both able to buy presents for their siblings, and their aunts and grandparents, needless to say, it made Christmas a lot more special! I wanted to put more pictures up but I have lost the charger for my camera and cannot keep it awake long enough to download the few pictures I even took! These pics are from my moms camera! So enjoy that I even got a few out there! Soon I will get the other activities from December on here, including our awesome trip to see Santa! In case you didnt know Santa was extra special this year! So look out for the next post!

Lily enjoying her gift from Santa!

Cody enjoying Grandma Gomms present to us! Thank you Grandma! Both boys still love this gift!

I just thought this pic was adorable! I LOVE my kids and how good they are!

Ballet recital and our first parade!

So, this is Lily's 3 recital, it was a city class, so it was just a little recitals with the other girls in her class during her regular class time. She loves ballet, but their were only 2 other girls in her class this time, and she did not like that so much, especially since the last class had soooo many friends! Anyhow, she did beautifully, actually she was the only one who did the whole performance, and the teacher afterwards said she is completely ready for the next level of dance, so that was exciting!

Throwing out some attitude! She actually struck this pose for me!

These are pics from the parade for the city. We were lucky enough to beinvolved because the company we have our dance classes through do the parade every year! Lily was actually the one who brought it up and wanted to do it, so I signed her up, she did really well, walked the entire thing with no complaint, and at the end said she never wanted to be in a parade again! She said it was too long!

Waiting, and waiting. Cute though!

I wanted to walk in the parade with her, so I had to buy a shirt and hold a sign! It was fun, but I'm not looking forward to any more in the future!

Lily is 4!! and other fun things going on...

Lily is finally 4 years old!! and the only reason I say FINALLY is because she has been begging to be 4 for months! She hates being the youngest in her class and in the girls her age, so now she is so excited about being the same age as all the other kids she plays with, and proudly tells everyone and reminds them that she is 4!
We didnt do much for her birthday this year, but she did want to go to a movie, so we invited a couple of friends and saw Astro boy! (not many choices this time of year, and Lily did want to see it!)

This is most of the group, we had another couple of friends come, but they didnt make it in time for any pics.

Jake had a performance at school entitled 'Give Thanks'. Very cute, expect Jake pouted for most of it because he accidentally forgot his sunglasses in the classroom that he needed for a song!

Jake got an award at school! Kindof like honor roll, only they call it '

'Hall of Fame', He was so excited and proud! and so were we! Way to go Jake!

The Bum

So I forgot to include pictures of Nephi the bum at our ward halloween party! We had the elders over here tonight, and we started talking about Nephi the bum, and one elder said, "oh that was you! I thought at first that it was a member just dressing up, and then as you walked past us and said goodbye you walked out to the street and started walking down it, and I thought Wow, that must have really been a bum!"

Earrings! finally!

Where to begin... this story began when my daughter was born. I have always long believed and been excited about piercing my baby daughters ears. I know there might be readers out there that dont believe as I do, and that is fine but for me I honestly have always been excited for this moment when my baby girl has earrings. My ears were pierced when I was a baby, most of my siblings had theirs done too. Well my sweet husband did not agree with me from day one, he is always very willing to let me win ( in a way) but I did not want to go against his wishes, so I conceded with when she asks it is okay. So, periodically as she has grown up I have kinda asked her, or teased my husband, but she would always say no to needles! Anyways, so a couple of months ago she actually started asking to get her ears pierced! Which was so exciting, but I was super nervous because I have heard tons of horror stories about little girls getting their ears pierced at this age... the infections, the crying, and so on. So as exciting as it was, I put it off... and kinda ignored her.. well not ignored her so much as began to really lay the excruciating truth of it all to her. I told her it was painful, that it is a big needle that goes all the way through her ear... yada yada.. but she still kept asking and I still kept hoping she would forget for another year or two. Then one night, I walked into her room, and found her sitting on her bed touching her ears, she looked at me and said "mom do you have a needle?" and I (doing the laundry so a little distracted) asked her "why do you want a needle?" and she said "so I can poke a hole in my ear". So that did it, and over the next few days I figured out where and when we were going to do it and did it! If she was desperate enough to ask I was not going to wait and find out if she would! Anyways, she did awesome! She cried but she got over it really fast, and has been such a good sport about the whole process of cleaning them all the time, and not touching them so that they dont get infected. Sorry this story was so long, but it was just one of those things that for future reference I wanted to remember every detail. So know, my beautiful daughter can wear earrings! Yeah for patience!

Halloween time!

We had such a fun time this Halloween... which is saying a lot for me, because although it is my husband's and childrens favorite holiday it is probably one of my least favorites... only because it always seems to be super hectic! and getting worse every year! Besides school, and Nephi's usual excitement and getting carried away with halloween, it was actually pretty darn fun this year. It was hectic, but I think we (and by we I definitely mean I) are finally getting used to a good system of making the most out of everything we are handed! Our ward trunk or treat was the night before halloween, so it made that weekend super crazy! On top of that, Nephi was asked to do something extra special for the night... He was asked to dress as a bum during the trunk or treat and scare everybody! Which he did very beautifully, as only Nephi could! It was seriously great, especially since he came to the party dressed from head to toe as a mummy! If it hadnt been for some of the youth catching on that he was the bum he could have really convinced the whole ward. As it was he still had people second guessing... and for the rest of the night, we would have kids AND adults running up to us, and looking closely at his face! So like I said, it was hectic but we all had a lot of fun this year!

Lily as Tinkerbell!

Jake as Harry Potter


Cody with his mummy daddy

The kids, and Nephi with our cousin Hailey, I mean Cinderella.

The outcome of our pumpkin carving night.

Lily helping Dad carve pumpkins, dont you just love that cheesy smile?

At the Cal Poly pumpkin patch, where I am determined to go every year, because they have the best selection for an unbeatable price! Cody was such a grump here,

but we all were in a way because it was so darn hot, and too close to lunchtime!