Happy New Years

 We made homemade ice cream

 which Brody enjoyed....

 VERY MUCH!

 ...well, we all did.

 We let Chase pick out a couple of games to play, but considering his attention span is about 3 minutes that's about how long each game lasted.

 This chess set was an Ecuadorian souvenier.  It's little figures carved out of some kind of nut, but Chase loves the walruses.  Here is is making an "oof oof" sound like a walrus.

Can't be a party without treats, hence the chocolate in Chase's mouth.

Some neighbors were doing big pretty fireworks and suddenly Chase remembered we had some sparklers left over from the 4th of July, so we headed out to watch fireworks/ do sparklers.

We did a countdown with Chase to 8:00 and sent him to bed with the popping and crackling of fireworks in the background (which went on for the rest of the night).

We tried to stay up watching a movie and playing games but I feel asleep and headed for bed at 11:45.  I really couldn't make it the last 15 minutes.

I'm starting to think New Year's Eve is a sad excuse for teenagers and college kids to stay up all night.  It's just not the same when you have kids that are going to be getting you out of bed at 6:00 the next morning.

Daniel made this great movie and I absolutely love it.

Watch for:  

      Daniel sticking his tongue out at me in fast motion.

      Chase begging to see the video in a chipmunk voice.

      Me screaming AAAH when Chase hits me with a snowball.

      Brody running off to who knows where.

      Brody's face when we send him down on the sled by himself.

      Chase explaining the "electrical monster" (which he 100% believes is real).

      

I'm sure it won't be as funny to you, but it cracks me up every time.

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