Decorating our Tree

One of my favorite things about Christmas is putting up the decorations.  The  boys start out excited, but then get bored.  They love to do the tree, but I always make us wait until everything else is finished and cleaned up.  Then it is time to do the tree!  For me it is the final touch and I love to be able to turn on the lights and enjoy!

Fun movie night!

When we returned home from Idaho, we were greeted with a wonderful surprise.  A movie night all set up and ready to go.  There were tickets, individual bowls of popcorn, blankets, candy.  Everything you need for a family movie night, all prepared by dad!  He is so thoughtful and fun.  It was a super fun surprise!

Trip to Idaho

When the boys went off track, I decided to take off!  The boys and I loaded up and went to Idaho to visit their cousins Justin and Max!  We had a great time.  The boys played and played and enjoyed all of the projects Aunt Janae had planned for them.  They have so much fun together.  It was nice for them to have unlimited cousin time!  (And I enjoyed the sister-in-law time as well!)

Our First Snowman of the Year!

The boys were very excited to wake up to a snow storm.  As soon as Nate got home from school, it was time to build a snowman!  They had a lot of fun playing in the snow.  McKay loved the snow.  Anytime there is snow on the ground he calls it "snowman".  He also loved to wear all off his snow gear.  Doesn't matter where we are going or how cold it is, he wants his boots, hat, and gloves!

Halloween

For Halloween this year, we had a variety of characters.  T.J. wore his award winning Obi Wan Kenobi costume, Nate used his Indiana Jones hat that he worked so hard to buy at disneyland, and McKay was obsessed with Buzz Lightyear so that costume got another year of use!

Birthday and Halloween Dinner with Nanna

Nanna invited us over for a delicious dinner and apple picking.  The boys love going to Nanna's and especially enjoy picking the fruit from Nanna's trees.  We were also surprised with pumpkin carving and birthday cookies for Mike! It was a wonderful evening.  Thanks Nanna!

Nate lost a tooth!

Nate had a loose tooth for a very long time.  We kept telling him to wiggle it around to help it come out.  He would do that by pushing it forward with his tongue.  Eventually, the back of the tooth had come out but it was still connected in the front on one corner.  It was hanging sideways in front of his other tooth.   I wish I had taken a picture of it like that.  It almost looked like he had already lost it, cause you could hardly see it!  Nate was so excited and so proud when it finally came out!  (And so were we!)

T.J.'s Baptism

On September 27th, T.J. was baptized.  It was a very special experience.  I still can't believe we have a child old enough to be baptized.  He is such a handsome boy.  My dad took this picture and I love it.  He looks so grown up and ready to be baptized.  He was baptized in the Stake Center next to the new Draper temple.  I will post more pictures later.  They are on my mom's camera.  We had so many family and friends come and share the day with us.  We really appreciate everyone's support.  As we were sending out invitations, I realized how fortunate we are to have so many friends and family close.  We missed those who are too far to come and look forward to the next time we can visit with them.  The gospel is such a wonderful blessing and provides such guidance and peace for us.  I am proud of T.J.'s decision to be baptized and hope that he can always remember how he felt on this special day.  

Late Night with Lego's

We wanted to do something special for his 8th birthday.  He debated on going to a Bee's game but I told him he would have to limit the number of friends he invited.  He decided instead to have a late night party.  It turned out to be tons of fun!  We started with the Lego party and had a creating contest and tower building contest.  We then had pizza and built their own lego racer cars.  Mike built a 4 lane race track that we used to race the cars to see whose was the fastest.  After the race we had cake and presents and then moved on to our movie portion of the night.  We popped popcorn and watched "Ernest goes to Camp".  The boys loved it and had so much fun.  It was a wild and crazy night, but considering the number of boys in the house, it went extremely well!  I am glad that T.J. has made so many friends here.  We are so blessed to live in a great neighborhood.

T.J. turned 8!

This is old news but I am going backwards trying to catch up on important events for us.  On September 12th, our oldest boy turned 8 years old!  I still can't believe it.  He is so grown up and such a wonderful boy.  T.J. is the best brother you could ask for.  He loves to be with his brothers and is thoughtful and considerate of them.  He is so smart and is starting to teach me many things.  He has the memory of his dad.  He can remember the smallest facts from anything that he reads.  T.J. has always been extremely cautious in his decisions and has a great desire to be obedient.  I hope these are qualities he will continue to have as he grows older.  We have sure been blessed to have him as our son. 

 T.J. LOVES lego's.  He has aquired this from his Dad.  It is funny how our interests are so similar to our parents and grandparents.  We had a very fun Lego party.  I had to get more creative and design our own decorations and cake, but I think it all turned out great!

The family party is always a fun evening with dinner and time with grandparents, great-grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins.  We love having everyone together.

Being a lego party, everyone knew T.J. loved lego's and he received quite a collection that night!

T.J.'s birthday is two days after my grandpa's.  We always have fun celebrating with Grandpa-pa, but this year was extra special.  Grandpa-pa turned 80 and T.J. turned 8!  Grandpa-pa is such a fun grandpa.  He loves to tease the kids and the kids love to tease him back.  T.J.'s night was so much fun and a great way to celebrate this special birthday.

August Disneyland Trip with Grandpa and Grandma Fox

When the boys went off track in August, I talked my Dad into driving us to California so that we could go to Disneyland and he could play golf (never to hard to convince him to golf).  We were excited when he decided to stay with us and go to Disneyland for 2 of the 3 days.  We had tons of fun.  My parents even bought a season pass and are going to go back with us in December!

My mom enjoys it so much now that we have discovered rides that she can go on with the boys.  Buzz lightyear and Winnie the Pooh are two of our favorites and ones that Grandma could join us.  Since Mike wasn't there, my Dad took T.J. on a lot of the big rides.  They loved Thunder Mountain, Indiana Jones, and Splash Mountain.  We all really enjoyed the trip and the boys loved going on the rides with their Grandparents.  They fought over who got to pick a ride to go on with Grandpa. 

This is the rice krispie treat I got for McKay.  He was so excited when I pulled it out of the bag and wouldn't let anyone help him eat it!

This picture is of the boys waiting for the parade.  You can tell that they are all related to Mike.  You can frequently catch Mike in his squat and he seems to have passed it on to his boys. 

We don't make a trip to Disneyland without multiple rides on the Casey Jr. train.  It has always been a favorite and still is.  Even thought T.J. has grown into the big boy rides, he never complains about going on Casey Jr.!

I don't think I have ever seen McKay laugh harder than he was laughing at Donald Duck's mailbox.  We had to turn the knob over and over and over again.  Each time he just laughed harder and harder.

We love Disneyland and can't wait to go for Christmas!  We especially loved having Grandma and Grandpa with us!

Flag Football

T.J. enjoyed his first flag football league this year.  He was on a team with a couple of friends and really seemed to have fun.  (Although I am hoping not too much :)!)  It turned out to be very time consuming with 2 practices a week and 2 games a week.  During one of the first games, T.J. almost scored a touchdown.  He was very excited about that.  The last couple of games were very very cold!  I am glad he had fun, but I am also glad it is over.  Now on to basketball.  I am coming to realize, that with boys (especially 3 of them) the sports is going to be never ending!

Our Last Day with Grampa

Sadly, Friday was our last day to spend with Grampa and Gramma.  We spent most of the morning and early afternoon having Grampa playtime.  It was so cute to watch.  Unfortunately, I took tons of video that day, but no pictures of the playdates.  They played restaurant, train, puzzles, and games.  Grampa played right along with them.  It is very fun to watch.  I wish I had a picture of their train expedition.  Nate was the conductor telling everyone all aboard.  Grampa was the driver wearing his crown, with the rocking horse in front of him.  He called it the one horse steam engine.  It was priceless time together creating memories that I am sure will last a lifetime!

Grampa and Gramma treated us to ice cream before Lisa and her kids came to pick them up for the rest of the day.  Of course the ice cream was delicious, but it wouldn't be right without funny face time!

Saying goodbye was very hard.  After having such a fabulous, fun week and watching the boys (and the adults) develop a bond with George and Margaret, it was very hard to see them leave.  I have an especially hard time saying goodbye when the next time you are going to see someone is unknown.  We will hope and pray that it is sooner rather than later, but until next time we have lots of video to make a sequel to the "Papa George" movie that the boys have been watching since our last visit.  It keeps the memories alive and helps the boys remember their Grandparents from England.

Temple Square

This was a trip we weren't really planning on doing during George's visit.  Margaret, however, really wanted to see it and he consented.  We rode trax down which the boys always enjoy and then had a picnic lunch in the pavilion in front of the temple.  

We enjoyed going into the tabernacle and the assembly hall.  I always like to go to temple square with boys.  There is so much to do and the boys love it.  It is such a peaceful place to be as a family.  Every time I go I leave thinking I need to come more often.  The boys had fun pushing McKay for the short time he actually stayed in the stroller.

We went into the visitor's center for a little while.  I like that TJ can read well because I know he reads the signs more and can learn so much from being there.  McKay on the other hand enjoyed pushing the button to see the light come on. 

We left McKay's jacket on the train and of course I thought it was going to be warmer that day (and didn't have a lot of clean warm clothing) so I put the boys in shorts and short sleeves.  McKay didn't seem to mind too much.  Grampa gave him his sweater to wrap around him and McKay LOVED that.  He wore it over his shoulder's the whole rest of the day and you could tell he felt like a big boy wearing it.  We had a really nice time all together.  That night we went to dinner at the country club and then retired at home for more "apples to apples".  The boys love to play "apples to apples".  The first night Grampa was there we played it and had so much fun, we did it every night.

Ice Cream Castle

When we returned from the train museum, we decided to treat Grampa to an ice cream castle.  It is tradition in Mike's family that for father's day, the kids build a "castle" out of ice cream and present it to the "king".  Then everyone grabs a spoon and digs in!  We do this every year for Mike and sometimes even my dad.  Since we don't see George on Father's Day, we thought it was the perfect time to do one for him.  We all enjoyed it.

After finishing our castle, we were treated to a session of funny faces by McKay.  He is always so cute.  The boys love to get him to make funny faces and he is really quite good at it for a 2 year old!