December Recap, Continued

We made it to the Ward Christmas Breakfast this year for the first time in 10 years. S and O were shepherds in the Nativity and S sang a song with his friend at the microphone.

H and J enjoying breakfast:


Mom and H


Little shepherd O, who carried around a snorkel as a shepherd's crook all week in preparation:


S sang a duet with a friend. I tried to post a video of it, but it was taking forever, so I'll try again later.

After the Breakfast and Nativity J wanted to try out a few of the 4-wheeling features of the new vehicle.

We drove to Saratoga Springs and beyond to get our FJ up snowy foothills.

Here is J, looking pleased with himself:


This is what the kids thought of it:

O and H loved it -- the bumping around, the loud noises issuing forth from the FJ. S? Not so much.

The view outside the ride was much better:

That little truck-shaped dot is in fact a truck that tried to get up to where we were, but failed.

And the mighty little vehicle itself, looking all rugged and manly:

December Recap

December was a month of firsts for our family. A brief recap before we get into the specifics:

Bowling
Nativity solo (and ward Christmas Breakfast, for that matter)
4-wheeling
Skiing
Fires
Hosting Christmas

Let us begin with bowling...

We took the kids bowling for a Family Home Evening at the beginning of December. The last experience I had bowling was when I was 8 with a church youth group. I remember that I didn't like it and hadn't been since. We didn't know what to expect.

Here we are having dinner. H looks wary.


Here is the most experienced bowler of the family. He really liked the feature on the monitor that told how fast the ball went, so speed became his goal.


Here am I. That look of astonishment is disbelief that I actually knocked down some of the pins and didn't get a gutter ball. (This was my 4th or 5th turn. The others were all gutter balls. Yeah!)


S preferred crouching down, setting the ball on the floor, and pushing it.


O was more of the "fling it" type bowler. This is a rare occasion that he stuck around to see where the ball ended up.


H was very happy. Jumping, clapping, yelling, dancing. Bowling for H was awesome!

A good "first" and definitely not a "last!"

He's D-A-N-G-E-R-O-U-S

My little S spelled down his whole class today to win their spelling bee with the word "dangerous." Tonight I'm one proud mama.

Family Pictures, Part Mommy

Me and the Monkeys...

H & me


O (There is no picture of O and me because he was done with family pictures by then. The last picture of this post was a stretch -- you can tell.)

S, H, and me

My three sons

Family Pictures, Part Daddy

J with the boys...

Just H



J & O


J & S





All my boys

Alone Again

J left this afternoon for Idaho where he'll be until Friday night. It broke my heart to have H writhing in my arms, screaming for Daddy while J drove away. He has been gone A LOT. When he left I thought I was going to go crazy. The Monkeys all decided to switch their volumes to VERY LOUD and fight through dinner. Aaahhhh!!!

But then, dinner was over. H went to bed. S, O, and I had a brief Family Home Evening. O went to bed. S went to bed. Quiet reigns, sanity is restored. O blessed bedtime!

In the immortal words of Dr. Seuss:

Today is gone. Today was fun.
Tomorrow is another one.

I'm thankful for "another one" with my little monkeys. My heart is full of love for these boys. And their dad? Well, before I can really miss him, he'll be home again too.

Family Pictures, Part I

A couple of my favorites...

Sweet little H

That look is so O

a B&W of S

A fun one of us all

And the one that'll be enlarged for our wall:

I like how J is the focal point of this picture. I could paint a wall the color of his eyes!

This one's for you, Mom!