Dear Jr Primary, In My Defense

Dear Jr. Primary,
A few weeks ago (has it really been a few weeks all ready?!) my sweet little boy Penn volunteered to say the opening prayer in sharing time during Primary. I guess he was very adamant that he didn't need any help and proceeded to say a very long and detailed prayer. He prayed that everyone could keep their eyes closed during his prayer and that his daddy wouldn't be so silly. But the part that I would like to address is the part that he prayed that his mommy wouldn't be so mean! I feel like you're not getting the whole story and I wanted to set the record straight!
I promise I'm not a "mean" mom. His every need is provided for. He has warm and nice clothes, nutritious food prepared with love every day and plenty of toys and intellectual stimulation to help him grow up big, strong and smart.
Believe it or not I'm the "fun" mom. I liked to present a few exhibits to help illustrate my point.
After the big storm I helped the boys build a snow fort in the backyard and pretended to hide from giants for over an hour. When we got cold I made hot chocolate for everyone.

They have little shovels to help with the heavy lifting

I love Penn's mischievous face

Snow Mountains for them to play on! We also made a fun snowman.

On occasion I buy glow sticks for them to play with in the bath tub, it's pretty amazing.
We have family movie night regularly. We sometimes blow up the air mattress and eat special theater treats and always have air popped popcorn.

Just getting comfortable before the movie

Recently I found an amazing deal for a monster truck rally. We took the whole family. Before the rally we eat at the boys favorite restaurant, the popcorn restaurant, Wingers. We watched in awe as Monster trucks revved their engines, smashed old cars and jumped off mounds of dirt. The motor cross was by far their favorite part. Motorcycles jumping alarmingly high and doing amazing tricks made everyone clap.

It was a little loud and the ear plugs were too big for her ears

WOW!

See the "fun" Mom!

Now to be fair, I can understand why he may misconstrue my love as being mean. I get to stay at home with him all day. Which means I'm the one that gets the most opportunities to remind him to make good choices. When he's opening coolers at the store that he shouldn't it's my voice that reminds him that isn't a good choice. When he's wrestling with his brother too roughly it's my voice that asks him to stop and apologize. When he takes a toy from his sister it's my stern look that says it all.
Maybe it's not so bad being the "mean" mom. Maybe being the mean mom is really just code for being a great mom. Thanks Penn, I love you too!

Christmas

Christmas was truly wonderful this year. Before even setting up the Christmas tree we had a family home evening all about the birth of Christ and why Christmas is celebrated. It was great to start things off on the right foot. When we did get out the Little People Nativity the kids retold the story to us. We were touched by how much they remembered and the way they expressed things.

Since last Christmas Penn has loved the movie "Polar Express". Its about a train to the North Pole. We had to borrow it from our friends in July because he loved it so much. So after the decor was up we surprised the kids with their very own copy of the book and movie. Throughout the month even Logan kept asking if we could ride the Polar Express some day and that's just what we did the Sat before Christmas. We told the kids we were going to find one and loaded everyone into the car and went "hunting". Of course we already had tickets for the Polar Express in Heber. It was just more fun to make it an adventure. 

So Happy

Having too much fun to pose for a picture

I highly recommend this adventure. We all had a great time. The train ran on "Christmas Cheer", had elves and a fun host for each car. They played Christmas music over the speakers and the passengers just randomly burst into singing along. Even the kids enjoyed singing Jingle Bells and Rudolph. Mrs. Claus served homemade cookies and we all enjoyed hot chocolate (until it ended up in my lap, courtesy of Logan). We made it to the North Pole and Santa boarded the train to say hello to each of us and present us with our very  own sleigh bell. Someone even got engadged with Santa's help. The ride was about 45 mins long which was just right. Not too long and not too short.

Dancing with an Elf

Every year the first gift of Christmas is opened on Christmas Eve, before the P.J.'s. It a picture of Christ to help us remember the true reason for the season. Penn was so excited he already had an idea of where he wanted to hang it in his room. Christmas morning was great, Aunt Becky even came up for the fun. We opened gifts kind of slowly and allowed the kids to play with their gifts as we went along. It extended the fun and gave the kids a chance to play with everything.

A singing, pretty princess castle. Audrey was in Heaven.

Remote Control Trucks, a huge hit

Nerf Guns! Yes

Christmas is always so full. There are lights to see, cookies to make, family to visit and lessons to learn. But we are truly grateful for the reminder of the love our Heavenly Father and Savior have for each of us, and the love we share with our family and friends.

Catching Up

My confession: I think about blogging all the time, but I've fallen so far behind it's a little overwhelming. Plus life has gotten so crazy. These last 6 months have been busy, I have so little time. But have no fear I have a plan. I'm going to post a ton of photo's here and get all "caught" up and then we can move on.... This will work.... Right?!?

The kids had wonderful birthdays. Both involved trains (you may have noticed we love trains around here!). We rode front runner up to Ogden to visit the Playhouse Museum for Audrey's birthday. 

Audrey can do it "by herself" at a train museum while waiting for front runner on her 2nd birthday

For Logan and Penn we visited.... I don't even know what to call it.... A local train enthusiast has turned his property into a mini train theme park. He has a few mini trains you can ride on, miniature trains to small to ride on but fun to watch, a play ground and picnic area. Uncle Mitch came up and we all had a great time.

We took an amazing camping trip with the Bingham's to Jackson Hole WY. We kayaked, wake boarded, mountain biked, played at parks, took a gondola to the top of the mountain and got more mosquito bites exploring then Mom thought was possible. It was an amazing trip!

Kayaking with Dad

Good friends just chill'n at the lake

Spencer went to PA for a work conference and got stuck there during Hurricane Sandy. His 5 day trip turned into 11 days! But things worked out perfectly, he was able to visit with his parents and help them prepare for and weather the storm. It turned out to be a blessing, we just missed him a ton around here.

Halloween was a blast. We had a little Halloween party with our friends and everyone had a great time. Kearsten and I laughed "with" the kids during the donut eating contest. They're still convinced we should have just handed it to them. So funny! 

Little Bo Peep, Woody, Snow White, Capt. America and Iron Man

Thanksgiving was crazy. All the grandkids packed into one house makes for an interesting dinner. But it was delicious and despite the insanity we are truly grateful for one another.

This was the first year we got a picture with Santa and no one was crying! But I'm not going to say too much about Christmas in this post, I'd truly like to do it justice.  

I think that covers the big events, lets just call that caught up...