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).

Fish Lake continued. . .

We had such a fun time while we were at Fish Lake. In addition to stuffing ourselves with lots and lots of really good food (I'll spare you those pictures) we also went fishing, of course. You have to go fishing while you are at Fish Lake. I love the way the sky looks in this picture. It is so beautiful and peaceful up there!!

Ben was actually a really good fisherman. He has the patience to wait for the fish to come to him. He's a lot like his Dad that way. Going fishing with Jim had a very calming effect on him. I wish we had a pond in our back yard so he could just go fish when he needs a break from life.

. . . We played A LOT of games - video games, board games, card games, chasing games, you name it!

. . . We also played with play dough for hours on end and made lots of interesting creations. The sad part was when someone (I won't mention any names) had a melt down when all of those creations got thrown away when we were cleaning up on the last day. :(

. . . We also spent a lot of time working on crafts of all sorts and sizes. I am amazed at how my boys can be running around acting crazy one minute and then the next minute sit down and do a craft for over an hour straight. They definitely have a creative side to them.

. . . and last but not least, we did a little dancing. Well, mostly Luke did the dancing. He was really gettin' down and shaking that little bootie of his. It was hilarious to watch him. I had no idea he could shake it like that! He definitely doesn't get that talent from me!

(As Luke was watching me post these pictures he said, "Hey, that's my bootie!" when we came to this one.)

Thanksgiving

We spent Thanksgiving this year in Fish Lake with Jim's Dad's side of the family. Let me tell you this family is HUGE!! There were like 50+ people up there and that is not even all of them. It was so much fun once I got past the claustrophobia of the crowd. There was a beautiful big cabin where we had the meals and most of the activities and we stayed in a smaller cabin close by.

Here is a picture of the family. Taking a family picture with this many people is quite a humorous adventure. This time it was actually pretty painless other than the fact that it was freezing and we couldn't wear our coats because each individual family had matching colors. In years past this process has taken hours (or maybe it just seems like hours) because there are a thousand people who want a say in how it's done. Luckily this year wasn't like that. It was pretty quick and easy.

Shawn and Byrdie were the only ones who couldn't make it this year. We missed you guys!

This is the best we could get of our family. Luke was just sick of smiling on cue and I'm not sure what's going on with Ben. He's a lot like his dad and gets kind of uncomfortable with a large crowd. I think that being around so many people might have been making him a little anxious and this picture shows his true feelings.