O Christmas Tree

The day after Thanksgiving, we went up into the mountains to cut down our Christmas tree.  The boys actually enjoyed it much more than they have in the past because it was much warmer than past years.  They loved running all over the place trying to find the perfect tree.  Noah found one his size.

Griffin saw a chance to photobomb this picture and he took it!  I think we should change his name to “The Photobomber”.  He has photobombed countless pictures.  This is one of the better ones.  :)

 

These boys make up games wherever they are.  This one involved falling into trees… I guess it’s a boy thing.

 

We found the one!
 

Ammon didn’t have to cut it down this year.  The nice farmer did it for us.  Here they are watching it fall to the ground.

And here it it in our living room!  I’m pretty sure some of our ornaments are still in storage somewhere in Gigi’s basement, but I still think it’s beautiful.  I took this picture with my Christmas present from Ammon.  He got me a Nikon D5100 and so far, I love it!  These pictures were taken at night, with the house lights off, and no tripod.  Also, no editing has been done besides cropping.

The boys helped decorate the tree for awhile.  When they pooped out, I finished it.

 

While decorating,  my family heard me sing 3 songs.

The First Noel

Ding Dong the Witch is Dead (from the Wizard of Oz)

and the only clean verse of a certain song by Green Day that I wish I didn’t know the lyrics to.  You do not want to get inside my head… It’s crazy in here!

Mom gave me this ornament a few years ago.  It’s a picture of me when I was… 3?  Maybe Mom will comment on it because I really don’t know the story behind it.

 

I accidentally caught myself in the reflection.

 

Then I became obsessed with capturing myself in the reflection.  :)

 

If you look very very closely, you can see a little boy in his underwear running away.

 

Beyond the Christmas boxes in the background, the boys are playing a game.

 

Then they came to play with me!

It is VERY hard to hold a camera still with two children on you.  Too bad this is blurry…

 

Look at my forehead!

 

Here’s another ornament I’ve had since I was a little girl and I don’t know the story behind it either.  I want to say that my Aunt Chris gave it to me, but Mom?  Is that right?

 

My sister, Michelle, gave me these trees as a gift a few years ago.  I love them so much.  I bought some miniature plastic bulbs last year after Christmas.  They came in such fun colors and patterns.  The boys begged to have the trees in the playroom and so far, we have not had any ornament grenades, bombs, snowballs or whatever else their little boy brains could come up with.

Family Home Evening

Typically, our Family Home Evenings are… well, typical.  We have a song and a prayer, followed by a lesson and activity.  Then we have a family prayer and do the same thing the next week. 

While playing the bowling app on my phone yesterday, Noah decided that he wanted to go play "bowling ball”.  Since it was Monday and I had made no plans for FHE, Ammon and I decided that we would go bowling together for our FHE.  We got to the bowling alley and they said all the lanes were full.  The Special Olympics were there and were not going to be done for another 2 hours.  Noah was sad, but Ammon told him that he had another plan.

We drove to Mayberry Mall and went to the arcade!

Here Griffin and I are playing Guitar Hero.  Actually, right when Ammon snapped this picture is when Griffin told me that he had to go to the bathroom right then.  It was unfortunate because I was totally ROCKIN’ some Pat Benatar.  We had to abandon our game though and run through the mall to the restrooms.

And who doesn’t love Skee Ball??  It’s one of my very favorite arcade games.

They won lots of tickets on this basketball game.  At one point, both boys were standing on the game while Ammon shot from behind.

With their tickets, they both got slap bracelets.  Remember those?

We had a wonderful time together at our impromptu Family Home Evening.

The Greatest Show on Earth!!

Back in February, we did something that was so much fun and I don’t think it ever got documented on the blog.

 

We went to the circus!  And not just any circus… the Barnum and Bailey circus.

I absolutely love the circus.  We went to a small one that came to our town last year, but it was nothing like this one.

Before the show started, we were able to look at all the animals.  The boys were ready to leave after that.  They thought that looking at the animals was the circus.  :)

Noah and Griffin were captivated the entire time.  If possible, I think I enjoyed it more than they did.  There was so much to see at all times!  We had wonderful seats and were able to see everything very well.

For the boys, the highlights were the man who was shot out of the cannon, and anything that had to do with clowns. 

This was what Noah looked like anytime there was a clown around.  He thought they were so hilarious!

And here we are with our favorite clown. 

I can’t wait to go back!

Love smart

I married a wonderful man.

He makes me feel adored and cherished.  I’ve mentioned on here before that my inlaws take the boys once a month so that Ammon and I can go to the temple.  Since we go to the temple so early on Saturday, it works out better if the boys spend Friday night with Gigi and Pap.  This also allows Ammon and I to have a date night once a month!

I have loved having this time with my husband.  I don’t worry (much) about the kids, because I know that Gigi and Pap love them so much and I’m completely confident in their ability to take care of my babies.

A few weeks ago, we took this opportunity to go to the Dixie Classic Fair.  Ammon grew up going to this fair and I had never been.  It was so fun walking hand in hand with the man that gives me “the feelings”.  He did 15 pull ups at the army booth and won a free water bottle.

He almost won a free tv at the rock climbing wall.  He came from work though and was wearing the wrong type of shoe.  Next year though, that tv will be ours!

I was just telling him the other day how awesome he is.  The guy is super smart… in all different areas.

He’s tech smart.

Outdoors smart.

Relationship smart.

Handyman smart.

Car smart.

Sports smart.

Physically smart.

Parenting smart.

Church smart.

Love smart.

He’s got so much going for him and I’m grateful that I get to be with him forever.  Our journey together thus far has been wonderful.  Growing old with my smart man is so exciting to me.

♥♥♥

gone fishin’…

A few weeks ago, we were able to go fishing at Jeff and Nanette’s home.  (Jeff and Nanette are Ammon’s aunt and uncle)  This was the boys’ first time fishing and they had so much fun!  Gigi and Pap came, as well as the Huff’s.

Pap showed them how to reel it in.

Noah and Griffin were in the sweet spot… As soon as they cast their line, they would get a bite.  I bet Noah caught 30 fish (at least!)

A Spiderman costume was a must.  He even called his cousin, Lathen and asked him to wear his Spiderman costume too.

They were catching them so fast that Ammon didn’t even have enough time to put sunblock on his face before Noah had caught another one.

Look at those shirtless brothers.  They are best friends!

Griffin is all boy.  Who knew a bucket of dirt and worms could make a child so happy?

These are a couple of the fish we kept.  Please excuse the disgusting bloody water.  Gross…

 

Noah got the hang of it pretty quick and soon, was doing it on his own!

He smiled, Griffin smiled!!  :)

Baby Griffin… who can no longer be considered a baby.

My 3 men.

I was there too!

On another note… I miss my nice camera SO MUCH!  I love that my droid has a decent camera, but oh my goodness, I crave the fantastic shots I could get with my DSLR.  I’m definitely not a pro, but I feel like I’ve been blessed with a good eye for photography.  I guess I should be thankful that I’m documenting these days.  It would be so sad if I had NO pictures.