Enjoying December warmth

 The end of December has brought us some very beautiful, spring-like, weather and we couldn't help but take our new "jeep" (4runner that we all call our jeep thanks to Chase) out on some dirt roads and play around. 

 Brody pretending to eat a rock.  He was eating mud and rocks and I kept telling him no, so he started teasing me with pretending.

 The snowsuits are becuase I'm tired of the kids getting sick EVERY time we go outside in the winter.  So now they wear snowsuits anytime we will be outside for more than 5 minutes.  Yep, they hate us for it :)

Christmas pictures.

Totally forgot my camera over Christmas :(

 Thank goodness for Daniel's android or we would have nothing. 

Christmas eve was spent singing Christmas songs, playing, laughing, watching Polar Express and opening one present from the Grandparents including pajamas.  As you can see the little boys were so excited to get an early start on the paper ripping experience.

The rest of Christmas eve was spent playing white elephant games including around the world ping pong, mexican train dominos, and the our traditional roll the dice game. 

This year Mr. and Mrs. Clause got a new Miter saw, sander, and Jigsaw so they were hard at work every night in December after kids went to bed making a tool bench and blocks.

The Cars suitcases were very last minute (they showed up on our doorstep the day before Christmas) but they couldn't be passed up after a great deal.  And they were worth the last minute stress.  Brody was the first one up on Christmas morning and we took him in to see the toys.  The first thing he saw was the Lightning Mcqueen suitcase and he ran straight to it (then it was off to check out Capri's kitchen :).

Who knew a sliver could create such a funny picture?

We enjoyed lots of yummy food including Brody's new favorite treat: Ice cream.

Visiting Santa

I'm not a huge fan of  Walmart, but I am a huge fan of them bringing Santa to their store for a visit.  I will not stand in line for hours at a mall waiting for my screaming children to NOT sit on his lap (BA HUMBUG!)  But seriously.  It's for me and not them.  They don't like it, yet, and I just need a picture so when Walmart offered a free picture with Santa I knew it was our only chance for the boys to sit on his lap, AND there was no line.

I was right, they refused to sit on his lap and screamed (which is why Daniel and I are in the picture) , but I'm happy to have the picture.

Santa can't read!

Out of the blue several days after Christmas Chase tells me, "Mom, Santa Clause didn't get my letter."  I tried to reassure him that Santa probably did get his letter because we mailed it with a stamp, and I asked him why he was concerned.  "Well, ....does he know how to spell S-N-A-K-E?  Did he give me a SNAKE?!?"

That's right Santa, one of the two simple things Chase asked for was not found under our tree on Christmas morning.  You blew it!

The proof is in the letter:

 (A pretend snake, not a real one :)

Chase turns 4

 (Way back in November)

Daniel made plans for a guys basketball trip to Las Vegas the weekend of Thanksgiving which ended up interfering with Chase's birthday.
We set out to make it up to him starting with a trip to Chuckee cheese the week before.  (Thanks to groupon for the cheap outing!)

 We had been once before and Chase loves this place.

His favorite is this jeep ride.  He would sit there the whole time  if I didn't make him get off and give the other kids a turn.

 They had a few birthday parties going on at the same time and when Chase would hear them singing Happy Birthday he was so excited to hear them singing "to him".
He even got to meet and hug Chuckee Cheese himself.

 Before leaving for Thanksgiving break we had a little party at the house.  Mickey mouse called on the phone to talk to Chase and tell him happy birthday and Chase was so excited!  I loved that you can arrange forhim to call.   Chase was just thrilled.

 Chase chose to decorate the cake himself.  He insisted on me leaving the room while he did it.  I set up the video camera and later watched as he ate as much candy as he put on his cake.   By they time he was done the cake was LOADED.

I took him to the store to pick out what kind of cake he wanted and treats to decorate it with.  While we were there he asked to pick out some cereal for his birthday breakfast.  I offered to make him anything he wanted but he just anted to pick out some boxed cereal.  He walked up and down the aisle looking at all the boxes and grabbed one or two before putting them back for another kind.  We were about the leave with some fruity pebbles with marshmallows when he spotted the Raisin Bran.  My crazy little sugar lover put back the fruity pebbles with marshmallows and chose Raisin Bran.

Finally on his actual birthday I had taken the boys to Moab so we made another cake and got some balloons.

Poor Chase at this point was just starting to get pink eye and double ear infections.

For his birthday, Aiden bought a pinata .  They had so much fun taking turns beating the treasure chest to death.  And when they cracked it open, they hardley had to rush to gather candy.  Between the two of them they casually picked up the pieces that they wanted.

All in all he had a lot of fun

Chase says....

"Dear Heavenly Father, please bless us, please bless the food and I don't like biscuits and I do like cocoa...."
-any guesses as to what we had for dinner that night? :)

Laundry day-
"Mom, I just wanted to tell you.... that you are really good at folding my swimming suit."

During a conversation in which Chase had asked my why I liked daddy we were talking about how he makes us laugh, and works hard for us, and plays with us, Chase was quick to add... "and we like daddy because he drives a truck!"

While pointing to his gums, "mom, I have an owie on my gum drops."

After talking about how ketchup is made, "How do they make mustard?  With yellow strawberries?"
-No, with mustard seeds
"Oh, do they just pant them in this mustard jar?"

While peeing potatoes, "Mom, when you're my age you can use the potato peeler too!"

Christmas tree hunting

 One of our favorite Christmas traditions.  We had to go a little farther out this time to the middle of nowhere. 

It's somewhat slim pickin's out here in the Tooele desert, but I'd rather have a funny looking tree than loose this tradition.  We thought we were stuck with another Juniper like last year, but ran into some pinyons.  

 The boys hauling the tree

 It was cold, but we bundled up tight.

I made the boys take another family snapshot with me.  I just know that someday they are going to be glad that I made them take all these pictures :)

The little boys wimped out on me so I made Daniel humor me a little longer.

By our tree.