I did, I did blink!

Christmas morning was so fun. I love seeing the kids open up their presents. I love seeing if my Dad can guess what we got him. I love having my family all come to my house and just sit and laugh and have fun for a couple of hours. I love Neal's huge breakfast that he makes every year. I hate the mess, but it is worth it. My Dad gave my Mom this hat as a joke. She is always cold and since it covers her whole head and ears you would think she wouldn't be cold, but I know that no matter what you do, she will still be cold. Landon and Grant usually open their presents fairly quiet and at their own pace. I can't say the same for Aliya and Josh.

Aliya is in Salt Lake with my parents for her school break and since we never have snow, we decided we need to get her a big warm jacket.

Grant was opening his presents too slow for Josh, so he decided to help him.

Nancy and Jason brought over all of Caydence and Trey's wrapped presents, so we could all see what they got. What a sweet girl. I know if I ever need a good hug she is the one a go to.

Landon loves the movie Cars. He was pretty excited.

Wow, the holiday went so fast. I think I blinked.

"I'm not a girl. I don't wear pink pajama's"

Christmas Eve is always so fun. This year we did our big Christmas dinner on Christmas Eve so we would not be in the kitchen all day on Christmas cooking. Our Christmas Eve traditions were extra special this year cause Nana and Papa were here to share them with us.

Here are some pictures of the kids decorating cookies for Santa. Nana had fun helping the kids make a mess. Hehe :)

Here are the kids in their Christmas Jammies. They always open two presents. One is from Mom and Dad which is usually pajamas and this year, slippers. Then they open their sibling gift. They buy one sibling a present. This year, Landon bought for Aliya. Grant bought for Landon and Aliya bought for Grant. It is so fun for them and they love giving a special gift to their brother or sister. When they get older they will choose names and it will be secret. I love how traditions can carry on through the generations. Neal and I have tried to use as many traditions from our childhood as we could. I think that's what kids remember most about the holidays.

Sprinkling reindeer dust. The reindeer have to see our house and have something good to eat.

Aliya is trying to throw some on the roof.

Christmas fun!

Here are some pictures from our Sunday night at Great Grandma and Grandpa's!

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"Please be number one! PLEASE be number one."

Well, Christmas Eve is over and it was a very eventful day. I will post at a later time with lots and lots of pictures, but for now, I am so excited for tomorrow. Tomorrow is of course The Big Day. We also get to go open presents with Neal's family and have the biggest brunch you have ever seen. But none of that means anything cause tomorrow we get to choose a house. Since the time Neal and I got married , Neal's Mom has painted these cute little village houses. Every year all the siblings get to choose from the village and take a house home for their own growing village. We draw a number out of a bowl and that is the choosing order. Your the luckiest person alive if you get number one. Neal's Dad emailed us the choices for early planning and strategy. I already have a few of the choices, so I only put the ones I get to choose from. I am leaning towards the Timberlodge or the Opera House.

Christmas Traditions!

Last night we went to see the festival of lights and the live nativity. It has been a tradition of ours since Aliya was born. The music is beautiful and so are the lights. We freeze and we drink the crappy hot chocolate. This year Neal and I were smart and brought our own. Grant even got lost for a couple of minutes. Then after the live nativity we all pile up on old salty and ride the train around the parking lot. Here are a few pictures from the night, but none of old Salty cause our cameras were too cold and would not work.

Landon has not left James' sight since he got to town.

Here's the gang waiting in line for the train.

All bundled up!!

Waiting for the Nativity show to start. Daddy is freezing.

Papa, Jason and baby Trey.

We have discovered that if we give the camera to Grant to play with, he actually can sit still for more than five seconds. He still has no concept of whispering, but at least he sits still. I just delete all the random pictures later. Except this one cause I thought it was too cute.

Mommy and Grant!!

What a great night. The next few nights will be very eventful. It makes me so happy to have my family here.

More fun pictures from the last month!

When Aliya performed at the Dickens festival the kids got to see Santa. He was a great Santa and did not rush them away. Grant is very unhappy in this picture because we made him stop looking at Santa so we could take this picture.

Daddy let the kids go on the roof with him while he was putting up Christmas lights. Grant was originally not supposed to be up there, but sneaked around the back and climbed the ladder. I was watching the back door to make sure he did not go up there, but since Grant is so smart, he decided to find a different way that Mom hadn't thought of.

Aliya had a school Christmas program. She looked so cute in her little Santa hat. Wow, sometimes I just can't believe I have a second grader.

We also went to the Festival of trees this year. We drug Daddy kicking and screaming to look at all the pretty trees. The kids got their face painted so it was a successful outing.

I am sure I will be posting many pictures throughout the next week. I hope you all are having a fun Christmas season. I know we are. :)

Performance pictures! More to come!

Aliya has had a busy Christmas season. She has had many performances and has become a lot more comfortable with being on stage. She loves the singing and dancing, but gets very nervous when it's time to perform in front of people. I don't know how she does it. It's crazy. Something I never would of done as a kid. I about fainted in school programs.

Ouch!!

Aunt Angie did her hair for this performance. I am not so good at performance hair.
She looked too cute.

Here she is singing her solo. Again!!

My cute little Reindeer.

Aliya also had a piano recital. Her first ever. She has been taking lessons for about four months now. She has been working very hard to learn and is doing very well. There is no crying when it's time to practice every day. Well, not yet anyway. I am very proud of her.

Here is Aliya with her best friend Brooklynn. They are in the same piano class and same class at school. They have known each other since they were born. They are funny girls cause they love each other to death, but fight like crazy. That's girls for you. By the way, I had nothing to do with her outfit. It was all her. The black shoes and everything.

Christmas time is always busy time, but I love it. My family is coming on Saturday and we will get to do all of our Christmas time traditions. I can't wait.

You know your old when....

You are at the store with your brother in law and you make a joke to the cashier and in her young wisdom she says "You remind me of my DAD."

And you are really old when you don't even recognize that she was calling you old till your brother in law tells you.

Sorry Neal. I had to tell this story. It was too funny.

Aren't girls supposed to think flowers and ladybugs are cool? :)

Aliya says "Mom, come look at this cool thing we found."
Mom says "okay honey I will be there in a sec."
Aliya says "Come on Mom. It is so cool."
Mom says "Okay, I am coming."

I go outside thinking my children are going to show me a cool rock they found or a cool flower.

Landon shoves this container in my face and there in the container is a dead lizard. Not just a little baby lizard, but a full grown huge Lizard.

Mom SCREAMS!!!!

Mom says "Landon, did you touch it?"
Landon laughs "No mom, I picked it up with the shovel."
Aliya says "Mom, can we keep it?"

Mom SCREAMS!!!!

Mom says very calmly "Aliya and Landon, go bury the lizard WITHOUT TOUCHING IT."
Mom says "Oh wait, let me get a picture for the blog"
Mom walks outside and the container with the dead lizard in it is between her and the car, which is where her camera is.

Mom says "Never mind. I don't need a picture to tell this story."

Why in the heck would my seven year old daughter think a dead lizard is cool?

If you want snow, you have to go get it.

Hahaha... I was looking through my old pictures and found these. Last year our sweet neighbor came home from a trip and brought home a whole trailer full of snow. The kids had a blast with it. I seriously had a hard time finding gloves and hats for them. I guess we need to stock up this year if we plan on visiting my parents.

It's just me, Neal and the pager!

A couple of nights ago we went to a dinner for all of the Firemen. It was a lot of fun and I liked being able to meet all the guys that I only hear about. I didn't get any pictures from the actual dinner (I was wearing a cute outfit too), but I did put a few on here from when Neal was going through the fire academy. The summer Neal went through the fire academy was the longest summer ever. It was two days a week and one Saturday every other week. Plus all of the studying during the week. We didn't get to take a vacation that summer. Neal loved it though. At graduation, Neal received the award for recruits choice. It meant a lot to him. It was a tough experience, but definitely worth it.

Neal has gone through a lot to get where he is with the fire department. It has been a long year of obstacles to overcome and through it all, Neal has stayed strong with his integrity in tact.

I know Neal really appreciated having his brothers advice throughout the whole process. After all, Dan was the inspiration behind it all. Dan works as a full time firefighter and had already been through the ups and downs of the academy.

The kids love to go to the fire station and climb all over the engine. They are so proud of him. Every time we pass a fire truck, they think it's Neal off to fight a fire.

It's now a year and a half after Neal graduated from the academy and I think he loves it more than he thought he would. He is seriously thinking about doing it full time. The pager was a little hard to get used to in the beginning, but I have grown to love it.

Thanks Jason!!

My wonderful brother, Jason, got the video of Aliya singing posted. If you want to watch it here, just pause the music player and push play on the video player.