Field Trip to the Fire Station

Ben's cub scout group got to take a field trip to the fire station. It was such a good experience for the boys. I love the scouting program because it teaches the boys how strengthen their character and grow up to be honorable young men. The best part of this trip was the conversation we were able to have with our boys on the drive home. We talked about what it means to be a hero. It was a nice teaching moment that I hope they will never forget.
The boys had so many questions for the firemen. They were very patient with the scouts though. (I think Luke might have had to use the bathroom.He doesn't hide it very well :))

Future firemen in training!!

Invent Your Own Cake

Jimmy loves to cook. Sometimes as a slightly ocd cautious mom I have a hard time giving him total control in the kitchen. So over the winter break I decided to let him invent his own cake recipe and then do all of it on his own. I got the idea here. He had a blast with it and was so proud of the finished product!! Which actually wasn't bad at all. It was probably a good thing that we forgot to put the lemon in the cake though. I don't think that would have been a very good idea.

It wasn't anyone's birthday. Jimmy just wanted to add candles to his cake. I guess it just adds to the fun of the whole experience!

Christmas Day 2012

This is the note that Ben left for Santa on Christmas Eve. Some of this stuff I didn't find out about until I saw this note. Although, I did know that he wanted and "eye pod." He didn't exactly get one for himself but we got a Kindle Fire for our whole family and it was a hit! They love it!!


Jimmy got a bike that is like 2 sizes to big for him but he's doing a great job with it even though he needs to grow about 3 inches before he'll be able to ride it comfortably.
We had yummy Santa pancakes for breakfast on Christmas morning.

Who needs a fork?! They're over rated anyway! ;)

Ben was so happy that he got his snowman snow globe from Luke. Luke must be inspired!
We were lucky enough to have Grandma and Grandpa visit us on their way back to Montana. It would have been nicer if they had been able to stay longer than one day but we'll take what we can get. They did the loop from Montana to Utah to Arizona to California back to Utah and the home to Montana!! I don't know why I wasn't smart enough to get a picture of Grandma and Grandpa with all the boys but this is the only one I have. I guess I was tired of taking pictures at this point.

Christmas Eve at the Beach

This Christmas was the first time in 4 years that we have not traveled to either Utah or Montana. While we did miss being with family it was so nice to be home. We didn't have to haul a bunch of gifts in our car while at the same time making sure that the kids don't see any of them. We didn't have to battle ice and snow and/or car troubles on the long and treacherous 12 hour drive. We didn't have to pull any of our winter coats and snow gear out of our garage. We didn't have to forget to pour hot water on any of our frozen car door locks. This is a very important step. If you don't pour hot water on the lock to defrost it you might just break the lock and then have to prolong your trip an extra day and pay hundreds of dollars to get it fixed. Not that that happened to us though. Just sayin'!

Instead, we got to go to the beach for a picnic on Christmas Eve! It will likely be the first and last time we ever get a chance to do that so we enjoyed every minute of it!! It was a gorgeous, sunny, perfect day! No snow, ice, or frozen car door locks here. :)





Of course, Jim and Ben can't stay away from the water even when they don't have their swim trunks on! Who can blame them though. It was absolutely perfect and beautiful!!!

Making Gingerbread Houses

Every year we make gingerbread houses for Christmas. In the past, we've just done one but this year each of the boys did their own house. Jimmy's was from a kit (I highly recommend doing it that way). Luke's was made out of graham crackers (I also recommend doing it this way). Ben's was done from scratch (I definitely DON'T recommend doing it that way)!! But he had fun even though his was very burned and not equal on all sides. :))

Luke is having more fun with the toothpicks and gumdrops. I'm not sure what he's making. I also don't remember what happened to his face. It was probably nothing. Every time he has the tiniest scratch he runs to the cupboard to get a band aid!! He is going to make me go broke from buying so many band aids!! I was probably out of the regular size band aids so he got a small one instead. He's also in a tattoo phase as you can see from his arms. :)

I forgot that gingerbread houses take such a long time and we started them at like 7:00 at night so we had to put the finishing touches on the next day.
Here is the final product. As you can see they each have a dog house and a Santa sled with their house. They were so proud of their creations and they all did an amazing job! With a little help from me and Jim of course. ;) Although Jimmy's was 100% his own work!
Ben's dog house even has the dog's name on it (which he wrote on all by himself).