More Christmas

Christmas Eve at Grandma's

Yes Yes I am really behind. But one of my favorite sayings is better late than never! So we have started a tradition of having a nativity at Gram and Gramp Hills on Christmas Eve. It all started when mom got Alice the Donkey. So now we have the horses, donkey, goat, cats, dogs etc. all for the nativity. The boys all play Shepard's or wise men. Dax is baby Jesus although this year I think he may have been a bit too big unless baby Jesus came out looking like a 3 yrs. old and of course Reesie is Mary. Anyway, we freeze while someone reads the scriptures and then rush in and drink hot cocoa and then continue the festivities inside. Dylan has been going to Grammas in the morn while I go to the gym. He love to help feed the horses especially Alice the donkey. He feeds her carrots and gives her kisses. These pics are of Dylan and Reese (even though you cant really see her) on Alice and Erin's Chad is helping them stay on Alice. They are still dressed up in the official Sheppard, wise man and Mary attar. Cute kiddos!

Christmas Program

Here are a couple of pics of the boys at their school program. Teton Elementary is a great little school. The boys love music and their music teacher Mr. Coletti. They love to do the actions. The video footage is much better than the pictures. So here is Sawyer (3rd grade) and Keller (Kindergarten). Thanks for looking!

Keller's 6th Birthday

Okay so my sister Kate has inspired me to me much much better at posting on my blog. She has had this neat book printed up that shows every post with pictures that she has made. It was way cool so I am going to try it out. It is like an online journal that everyone can read and you can have printed. A scrapbook and journal in one. What a great idea. So since Dylan just had his birthday and Dad and Sawyers are in a couple of days I had better record Keller's. Oh were to start with this kid...On the morning of his birthday he got up and knew for a fact that he had grown in the night. He was defiantly 6 years old and he felt it. I say it all the time he is an old soul. A 87 year old stuck in a six year old body. Hey to have the wisdom of a 87 year old and the body and energy of a six year old Who wouldn't??? So Ryker spent the night at our house the night before and we had big plans to go to a movie and McDonald's the next day. Since Kellers birthday is so close to Christmas he gets alot of Christmas thrown in. He doesn't mind (yet) His Kindergarten class went to the senior citizen's home and sang their Christmas songs. Every time you would make eye contact with Keller he would give the thumbs up and then hold up six fingers. Just in case you forgot it was his special day. Gram Sheila came with me and helped me on this day. We went to McDonald's and then we rented G-force and the watched that. Kellers friend Caleb Perry spent the day with us as well. Then the grams and gramps, gramma Ball and Daisy and Reily came over as well as Aunt Erin. Keller opened his gifts. He got $$$, Spin and fix Thomas (a must have)a Thomas blanket, a green car scooter thing, Sawyer gave him a Ds case and he got Train Master the movie. I seriously thought he was going to cry when he opened it. He was so happy. He loves that show. Then he blew out the candles on his sad excuse for a train cake but I don't think he cared much it was a train and that's all that mattered. He seemed to have a great day. He was on cloud 9 the whole day. It just reminds you why you have kids and how fun life can be. We love you Keller!! You are a one of a kind!

Me andMadelyn

This is my great friend Madelyn Mendenhall. I met her a couple of years ago at a church "Super Saturday" I thought she was way cute and she had these five kids that she brought with her. She was so patient with them and to top it off she was dressed in cute clothes and she was painting. So of course being me I said all of these things...holy cow you have 5 kids and we are the same age, your pants are too cute to be painting in, wow 5 kids and you bring them with you to "Super Saturday" Anyone who normally knows me knows that I can be a little obnoxious and really don't think things through before I say them. That day was really no different. Needless to say she was not a Joey fan the first time she met me. I on the other hand thought she was great! She just didn't know how to handle me. But over time I think she learned. We were put into scouts together and from there her daughter AIly started to babysit for me durning the day and then we started running in the mornings together. She helped me train for Ragnar (the relay from Logan Ut to Park City, UT) and we ran the Teton Dam 10k together. I didn't know that there was alot to learn about running but Miss Madelyn taught me alot. She quickly became one of my best friends. We (or maybe just me) would pour our hearts out on our runs. Just us and our trusty K-9 companions. She moved away end of September and I have really missed her alot. You wouldn't know by the amount that I talk or email her but I truly do miss her and her family. The weather is wanting to start to warm up and thoughts of training again for upcoming races this summer are constantly on my mind but I just cant get motivated to run. Why you ask??? Because my best running partner is not here to motivate me. Madelyn if you by chance get to read this please know that I miss you terribly and hope you are going great! If anyone else is reading this and wants to try to measure up to My Madelyn and train me for races this summer please let me know.

Typical Weekend Night

If you come to our house in the evening this is what you will most likely find. Jaren on the couch with 3 little boys. They love to put in a show (it does matter what they will all watch what ever) and pop popcorn. These boys love love love their dad. And I am pretty sure he feels the same about them. We are going to need to get a much bigger couch or the boys will have to stop growing. They sure are going to look funny in a few years all piled on the couch. Personally I just hope they stop growing so fast. Here's to my silly boys, all four of them!

Jaren's New Toy!!!

Okay so he has had his toy for a couple of months but I thought I would let the newness wear off a bit. Jaren started to learn to fly around 10 years ago. I was prego with Sawyer when he started. It was mid August of 2000 when he did his first solo flight out to Arco, ID. He was coming into land and a weird cross wind came up and long story short he wrecked the plane. He promised not to fly again until the "kids" (prego with the first at the time remember...didn't even think about the last two) were finished with college. Well that lasted almost 10 years. Pretty good I guess. Well Jaren is back to flying. The first little plane he had just didn't have enough power and he wanted something bigger in case he was ever in the same situation as before he would have enough power to pull himself out of it. So he sold the little maroon and silver plane and upgraded!!! And upgrade he did. He is the envy of all his airplane buddies. It is an awesome plane. Big ol tires and it just happens to be Keller's favorite color....YELLOW! Jaren loves to fly this thing. And I think he is getting pretty good at it. He tries to go at least once a week (still with his instructor even though he has been cleared to go alone) You can never be to careful. One thing about Jaren that confuses alot of people especially if they new him before he was married and even more so before kids is, he was the biggest dare devil. There was not a mountain too tall to snow machine or snowboard. If there was supposed to be fear involved he didn't have any. Now different story. Funny what age and a few kids will do to you. I don't think he has lost his nerve I think he just love his kids more than the thrill. And he keeps telling me that the airplane will be a great way to send 3 little Dr.'s through med school (or what ever else they want to do) I think we have all heard the saying "If mamma aint happy, aint nobody happy" I beg to differ on that I think is should be if Daddy aint happy aint nobody happy!" At least that's how it is at our house and let me tell ya Daddy is HAPPY!

These pics were all taken on the day they flew the plane from Boise (Caldwell I think) to the hanger in Rexburg. The guys in the pics are Ryan Robison, Casey Lindsay, and Bob Hannah. Sawyer is in one as well. Just look at the grin on Jaren's face.

Pooh and Tiger

We went to I guess Critter Country and ran into Pooh and Tiger. Dylan wanted nothing to do with them. Sawyer and Keller thought it was great to see them. Jaren and Sawyer went down splash mtn a couple of times. It was so dead in the park that they just got to stay in the little log boat and ride a couple of times. Dylan, Keller and I went on the Winnie the Pooh ride and Dylan thought it was great. I bet we went on it 4 times in a row and the dumb thing was we had to get off and walk through the non existent line (the ropes were all up) there was no one in line but we still had to go through the motions. Anyway this was the only dry morning we had. Right after these pics were taken the down pour started. Thanks for looking.

More Disneyland

Here are a few more Disney pics. They were taken our first official day. These ponchos lasted the whole week but by the end they were hammered. They were taken in Toon Town which is always a favorite. 3 of the 5 days we were at Disney, toon town had to be closed due to flooding (just to give you an idea of how much it rained) They boys got their pics taken with both Minnie and Mickey. When Dylan saw Mickey he ran right up to him and gave him a great big hug. He was really apprehensive about the characters except Micky. Thanks for looking!