My Little Man

Mister Mister has been obsessed with shaving lately.
So it came as no surprise that he absolutely adored his Spiderman Shaving Kit that Santa brought him.

Snow Man and Snow Cave

The kids decided that they wanted to make a snowman with Papa while he was here for Christmas. Sara pulled a stocking off of Cami's mantle and the holder hit her on the head. She chose to stay inside while Kate, Andie and Blake had a blast out in the snow.





Later that day when Bryan got home from plowing I took the kids from Cami's house to mine. Bryan had pushed much of the snow from the front yard and driveway into a huge pile. The kids had a blast with the Snow Cave.

Holiday Sweater Party

Wade and Katie planned a Sweater Party for the first time this year. We had a blast!

Who would have thought that we would end up with not 1, but 2 Cousin Eddies?

The Men

The Ladies

Kade and Watie:

complete with the pedophile stache

Bryan went all out and bought us matching sweats!

He is usually quite the Humbug when it comes to this sort of thing. I was very impressed with his festive spirit. We even had matching socks.

We definitely need to make this a tradition! We bowled, then went to Tepanyaki and ended the evening with games at the Trane's. Thanks guys. We had a blast!

Hansen's Visit

Melissa, Doug, Dallin and Amos came to visit for The Twin's baptism. Poor Amos was mauled by everyone, especially Blake. He is one loved baby boy. It was so fun to meet him.Blake and Dallin were instantly best friends. They wrestled like crazy and had so much fun playing together. Unfortunately, I didn't use my camera much that weekend. We went to Temple Square to see the lights and the boys loved riding Trax.

On their last night we went to Thanksgiving Point to see the reindeer and drive through the lights. We can't wait until the next time we get together!

Decorating the Tree

This year the kids were excited to help me decorate the Christmas Tree. Blake was the first to break one of the glass balls.
I really loved how the tree turned out this year. I added some lime green and it was stunning.

The kids each have a snowflake ornament with their names and birth year.

October Videos

Blakey Blake Blakester

Mr. Blake has got one of the most fun personalities! Ooh, I could just eat him up! He has been saying some of the funniest things lately.

Usually when he calls, "Hey, Mom," my response is, "hey what?" He responds with, "I don't like when you say 'hey'" (in his pouty voice). Last night in the car he added, "Santa told me that that is not nice when you say 'hey'. Apparently he is in constant communication with Santa these days. Last week he said, "Mom, Santa told me you are on the naughty list. So you can't do that." By "that" he meant discipline him. Santa tells him lots these days.

Blake loves big machines just like his daddy. He will go to a job with Bryan and sit in the excavator for hours on Bryan's lap while he works. Bryan has been teaching Blake how to maneuver the machine and he is doing surprisingly well. He loves, loves, loves to go to work with his daddy!

Blake is a big tease! He loves to pretend that he is going to give me a kiss then turn away. Apparently he thinks this is hysterical.

Another phrase that often comes from this little 3 1/2 year old is, "Okay Mom, here's the deal," followed by some ridiculous offer such as, "you can clean my room while I eat a Fun Dip. Got it?"

The poor guy doesn't have many kids in the neighborhood his age. He gets so sad when Sara gets invited over to a friend's house and he doesn't get to go. I usually try to remedy it with some special Mama & Blake time or an occasional trip to the dollar store. More often than not we use the more obvious solution: have the friends come over to our house so no one gets left out.

Thanks to the Mc-a-Donald's Happy Meals Blake has become completely obsessed with Star Wars. He is trying to collect all of the skateboards that come in the Happy Meal. (His dad always takes him to Mc-a-Donald's for lunch when they work together.) Blake pays for his lunch with the money he has earned working with Bryan. In an effort to get a skateboard that was not previously attained Bryan asked the employee what skateboards they had available. When the employee showed the boys 5 toys that Blake had yet to add to his collection Bryan asked him which one he wanted. Blake's response, "I'll have all of them." Unfortunately that did not include the coveted Yoda skateboard. Since the start of this new obsession we have watched The Clone Wars and the Star Wars movies. When Blake gets to choose which movie to watch he always picks one that has Yoda on the front.

When Blake was playing over at Cami's house she asked him who his favorite Utah Jazz player was. He quickly replied, "Kyle Korver." Cami asked him why not Carlos Boozer. "Boozer is a trader!" Poor kid, I don't think he realizes that Korver is a trader as well. They both play for the Chicago Bulls now.

Can it be?

When she was a newborn '5' seemed so far away.

Sara loved her birthday outfit! This was taken just before school on Monday. I got to go and do a special spotlight on Sara for her birthday.

Lately Sara loves to have "curly hair" but hates tangles. The solution: I french braid her hair after her bath. When she wakes up in the morning she has beautiful, curly hair and no tangles.

Sara loves to read! I have been reading "Ramona the Pest" to her at bedtime. Her teacher says she is doing well sounding out words and creating words with blocks.

Sara is still an amazing performer. She sings and dances for us all of the time.

Sara hates D.I. ". . . because that is where we give our toys away."

Her favorite color changes everyday. Last week it was orange. This week the color of choice is red.

We have a deal at our house that she can wear a dress or skirt only every other day.

Sara is always the first to volunteer to say the prayer.

Sara asked her Primary leader if she could give a talk in Primary.

My social butterfly is always asking to have a friend come over to play.

Sara loves to do chores that are different from her daily chores. She often wipes the kitchen chairs and stools, cleans the door windows, dusts and vacuums for me. However, she does not like to clean her room.

One of her catch phrases is "Here's the deal," followed by whatever she is trying to con me into. How can you not laugh at that?

Sara loves to play Barbies and especially loves playing them with her neighbor friend, Mariah. They are very good to include Blake in their games as well.

I taught Sara how to play Uno on our last cabin trip and it has become one of her favorite games.

She loves any sort of art project. When I asked her what center she loves the most at school her response was, "Painting."

Sara is an awesome big sister. She keeps trying to get Blake to call her "Sissy." She gets very upset when someone tries to leave Blake out. Sometimes she forgets she is a sister and tries to be a mother.

Oh Sara Mei, we love you so much and are so happy that you are part of our family!

Big Mess

What you can't tell from this picture is that Blake spilled half of a box of Kix cereal all over the hallway, living room and kitchen floors. He was happy to clean up his mess and got upset when I tried to help him.

Photographers

Sara decided that she wants to take pictures occasionally. She asked me to pose for this shot and made sure I was tilting my head just right before she took the shot.Blake took these pictures of Sara. Can you tell which emotion she is trying to portray?



Again, a Blake shot
Sara took this picture of Daddy's "Poo Face."

"Mom, show me your scared face."

Not so recent happenings

Grace is at the stage where everything goes in her mouth. I though I had seen it all until I saw this one day:Blake is trying to show Kai how to vacuum the living room

Sara's 1st Day of Preschool

Gotta love her poses

Posing with Daddy

Giving Mom a big squeeze

The first thing Sara has to do when she gets to school is to wash her hands.

Lucky Girl! She gets to be in the same class as her cousin Kyle.