Christmas Morning 2011!

All the stockings were hung by the chimney with care,
in hopes that St. Nick soon would be there!

Reagan was the first to wake up! She could hardly contain her excitement! She came in our room where David and I were sleeping and told us that Santa had come! She told us that he had brought her a PINK rip stick! Then she went back out to the family room. She inspected a little more and then returned to tell us what one of the other children had received. She did this over and over again until she had reported on each of the kids gifts one kid at a time! Finally we asked her to lay in bed with us until some of the other children were awake. She agreed to but it only lasted for a few minutes before she was begging to wake them herself. David must have allowed her to because before I knew it we had several of them up and ready to go!

Talan carrying his slinky dog from the night before
came down to find a Cars GeoTrax set!

Bradon took a quick look at his Modern Warfare wii game and then tried to play it cool like it wasn't that big of a deal. But we know that he was thrilled!

Carsten quickly jumped on his rip rider 360.
The great thing about Christmas this year is that the kids either asked for very little or nothing at all. So everything was a major surprise! We had no idea what to expect!

Isn't she lovely?
Yes I was bundled up in a blanket.
Keep in mind that I had very little sleep and was
fighting a cold that just about killed me!

Talan checking out his stocking!
A little tiny glass bottle of apple cider... So cute!

After the kids had all enjoyed their Santa stuff for awhile we began opening the presents from underneath the tree. Grandma Adair got Talan the Zurg gun that he threw a major fit about at the Disney store. He was SO EXCITED!!!! Talan is at the perfect age for Christmas!

But then Reagan is at a good age too!
She couldn't have been happier with her new ipod touch!

Ethan is growing up and he's more into adult like things. He got a cool new watch, an ihome and new clothes amongst other things.

Including this awesome Euphonium ornament!

Christmas was wonderful!
Everyone was pleased with all they received.

We all quickly got ready for church without a fuss and enjoyed a wonderful sacrament meeting filled with music sung by the choir. As we listened to the choir Talan told his Nursery teacher Brother Whittington who happened to have sat behind us every last detail about what everyone in the family got for Christmas. It was awesome!

Christmas Eve!

We were very lucky to have Grandma Adair with us again this year for Christmas. She came a few days before the kids were out of school for their Christmas break. She made Christmas break fun playing games, watching movies, and putting together puzzles with the kids!

This was our 6th Christmas in Utah but only our 2nd Christmas Eve with just our little family. We've always gone to either an Aunt or Uncles Christmas Eve party, so deciding what we want our own family traditions to be has been kind of fun!

We had a Christmas Eve dinner ate by candle light. We did this last year and the kids loved it so we did it again! After dinner we watched a Christmas movie, Elf. While the kids watched the movie I quickly wrapped their Christmas pajamas. While I was wrapping I realized that Reagan's pajamas were mismatched. The top was the right size but the pants were about 3 sizes too big! So I made an emergency trip to Target. Luckily they had one pair of pajamas left that were the right size. It was like a Christmas miracle! I raced back home just in time for dessert. We had a birthday cake for Jesus. We lite the candles and sang happy birthday. Growing up my mom had a Christmas candle collection and on Christmas Eve we would lite all the candles and sing happy birthday to Jesus. I always loved this tradition!

Then it was time to open our pajamas.
After opening the pajamas the kids begged to open up just one gift. They wanted to open the gift from their sibling. I agreed that this sounded like a good tradition and the kids were thrilled!

All the kids loved what they were given.
Talan got a slinky dog from Reagan.
Reagan got a pillow pet from Bradon.
Carsten got a rotating light base for his crystal trophy
and lacrosse socks from Talan.
Bradon got the 2012 world record book from Ethan.
And Ethan got a shaving kit from Carsten!

By far the shaving kit was the highlight of the night! Carsten couldn't wait for Ethan to open it and Ethan's reaction was priceless! He told us that he sort of expected it was coming! Now if we could just get him to use it!

We read the Christmas story, had family prayer and then sent all the kids to bed. It was a fun night! All very simple, yet fun!

A little Christmastime fun!

A few days before Christmas I got word that there was a movie star in town! A movie star that I was sure Talan would love to see!

MR. TOW MATER!

He was parked on one of the corners on Center Street in Orem.

We pulled up and Talan could hardly wait to get out of the car to go see him!

Oh my gosh! It was REALLY him!
It was really Tow Matter!

Seriously, what could be more exciting than this?

Santa Claus perhaps?
You guessed it! Our next stop was University Mall to see Santa Claus. Talan was thrilled! As we stood in line he did all he could to get a glimpse of the old man!

I asked all the kids if they wanted to sit on Santa's lap to tell him what they wanted for Christmas.
Ethan politely objected coming up with various excuses as to why it wasn't a good idea. "I would but he's not wearing his red coat!"
Carsten with ZERO hesitation absolutely refused! "No! I'm not going to do it!"
Reagan really wanted to but just wasn't sure what she should say to him! We thought about what she could say and then she was on board!
Talan without a doubt definitely wanted to sit on Santa's lap!
Bradon wasn't with us but I'm sure he would have loved to too!

I was pretty sure that by the time we waited in line and reached the front Reagan or Talan would have had second thoughts. But much to my surprise they didn't!

They both marched right up to him and sat on his lap. They both acted a little shy but as soon as Santa started talking to them it became easy.
I listened closely to see what it was they were going to ask for. I was pretty sure it was going to be something that they have been asking for all along but much to my surprise they both asked Santa for something they hadn't asked for up till then! Oh my gosh! Reagan asked for a pillow pet and Talan asked for a Polar Express train to go around the Christmas tree! Well isn't that good to know?

After our little visit with Santa we strolled through the mall visiting the Disney Store. What a bad idea that was! Talan wanted just about everything in the store and threw a major fit about it! We got the heck out of there and the fit continued on! This kid just doesn't let things go! We made several notes to ourselves and never plan on taking the kids to the mall again the week before Christmas!

Oh there is just nothing like a little Christmastime fun!

Road Trip!

David and I took a little road trip!

On December 17th we got up early in the morning,
put on our Aggie gear and hit the road for Boise Idaho!

It was time for the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl!

Aunt Nancy and Travis Schultz
We met up with the Schultz family for a little
pregame indoor tailgate partying fun!
Minus the tailgates of course!

We enjoyed a little Aggie ice cream and then headed to the game!

I never thought I would have the opportunity to have my picture taken with a REAL IDAHO POTATO! It was totally AWESOME!
David and I bought our tickets just a few days before the game. And for the low price of just $16 a ticket we were seated in the 2nd row of the south end zone!

My cousin Eric Schultz #66
We had excellent seats to catch all the pregame warm up action!

Unfortunately for us, the majority of the game was all played on the north end of the field!

Eric coming of the field after the game!
Utah State played a great game! I was absolutely certain that they were going to win it! And then just like much of their entire season, in the final seconds of the game it all changed. If there is one thing Utah State knows how to do, it's making the game close! They had so many games this last year that were theirs and then in the last seconds of the game it slipped away!
It was another heart breaker!

David and I went out onto the infamous SMURF TURF!

We took a few pictures and then met up with our family to discuss the game. I tell you though, Eric has nothing to hang his head down about
because he played AWESOME!

It's not everyday you get to watch one of your own relatives play division 1 football! Thanks Eric for giving us that chance!

The hustle and bustle before Christmas break!

I don't know about you but every year I feel like the few weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas break are outrageously crazy! It's like a marathon of events to attend and things to get done! It's like that one time of year that if you don't make a list and check it twice or sometimes even three times a day you will most likely drop the ball somewhere!

Here is a picture of our Christmas tree this year! The tree that has everything... literally!
From the bows I made the first year we were married to our retired house decorations,
and a little of everything from in between! We love it!

And this year was no different!

I decorated the house from top to bottom. We went to ward parties, neighborhood parties, classroom parties, cookie exchange parties, and every year I host an ornament exchange party as well. The children have their annual Christmas sing and their Christmas band concert. Oh and I almost forgot about Reagan's dance. They didn't have a recital but instead invited us all to go to class with them so they could show us their progress as if we had nothing else to do! Not that I didn't enjoy it! It's just during these few weeks I feel the most pressure to get as much of my Christmas shopping done and out of the way as possible! It's like crunch time before the kids are home full time! And I can't forget about family pictures and Christmas cards to be bought, stuffed, addressed and sent! And then I feel like I need to get a little something or make a little something for those I visit teach, for my neighbors, and my friends. All the while I diligently make my lists and check them twice and yet still I'm always sure that I'm forgetting something!

Oh the hustle and bustle
before Christmas break!

Thanksgiving Vacation 2011

Our vacation started off in Mesquite Nevada at a football tournament in which all 3 of our boys competed in.

Carsten's team ended up finally meeting their match! They lost to a team from Alta and took 2nd place. It was their first loss of the season! Some of the kids didn't take it so well but Carsten didn't seem to mind. However when they all took about a million pictures with their 2nd place trophy he wanted nothing to do with it! The look on his face was like, "PEOPLE, IT'S SECOND PLACE!"

Bradon's team did nothing unexpected. They lost both of their games in similar fashion as they did all season long! I know that that sounds awful coming from a loving mother such as myself, but seriously Bradon could have had NFL like linemen skills and it wouldn't have helped this team one bit! It's hard to play football without skill position players.

David coached Ethan's team and let's just say that the tournament didn't go exactly how we had anticipated. Ethan's 8th grade B team was mistakenly put into the A team bracket. When we approached the tournament director about it he assured us that the teams he had lined us up with were A teams but not very good A teams. After playing our first game against much bigger, stronger and faster competition than we had ever been exposed to, we decided that we needed to have another little chat with the director. Not only was this a safety issue but we've come all this way and payed over a thousand dollars for what? We weren't even really in a tournament! Anyways, David couldn't find the director but found his wife and spoke with her. She in turn told her husband that David was mean to her! So when we found the director later on that evening to speak to him directly he quickly jumped into attack mode. He puffed out his chest and yelled, "Nobody talks to my wife like that!" David and I being completely blindsided by this behavior were like, "WHAT?" Anyways to make a very long story short, he decided that he hated us and I'm pretty convinced that he decided to let us have it the next day. We ended up not only playing an A team, but an All Star A team from St. George which just so happens to be the directors hometown. They had ball carriers that were so obviously over the weight limit it was ridiculous! We requested that they weigh them again right there and then and they simply refused and allowed them to pummel us! It was super classy! And luckily only 1 concussion later the tournament was over and David and I vowed to never return!

The kids however had a blast swimming in the hot tubs, hanging out with friends, and just simply being out of town!

Then we headed to ARIZONA for Thanksgiving!

I did a really crappy job of documenting our trip through photos and I would like to apoligize for that but, it is what it is!

We spent the first few days in Phoenix with Grandma and Grandpa Haws.
We took the kids to the Cardinals stadium...

We hung out with large statues of Pat Tillman. And it just so happened that Pat's helmet was a perfect fit! Now isn't that totally awesome? Awesomely funny that is!

And this is the grass field that they roll into the stadium!
It's pretty amazing to see!

After spending a wonderful day with Grandpa Haws (without haven taken one single picture with him) we headed to Mesa to spend some time with Grandma Adair.

Grandma Adair took us to the dinosaur museum...

Where we got to pan for gold!
She also treated us to the movies!

David and I had a mini vacation within our vacation going to a Marriott Resort The Buttes in Tempe kid free for one night!

And then it was time for Thanksgiving!

We had Thanksgiving dinner at Christopher and Cheryl's home in Queen Creek. I made candy turkey place settings for everyone that I think turned out pretty cute! It was so much fun to see everyone and hang out. I love that my kids had the opportunity to hang out and play with their cousins!

I failed to take very many pictures. Except for I got a few of this cute little guy Elliot! My cousins Josh and Ellen have just recently adopted him. Oh and he's such a cute little guy!

Before returning back home we were lucky enough to go to Sun Devil Stadium to watch ASU play football. The game wasn't great but everything else was! We took Ethan, Bradon, and Carsten with us. They were more than excited to go but before the game we first took them to David's most favorite place to eat, Pete's fish and chips! After eating as we were heading back to our car a man that was in the drive thru lane yelled out to us, "Are you guys going to the game?" We said yes and kept walking. Then he yelled out again, "Do you have tickets?" We once again responded with a yes and continued on our way. Then he yelled out, "Do you want mine? They are on the 50 yard line... and they come with 2 parking passes!" And that's about the time we turned around and headed over the man. He had family in town and didn't have plans of going to the game and didn't want to see the tickets go to waste. We gladly excepted the tickets thankfully and then called David's good friend Russell to see if he would want to use our tickets. Russell grabbed his son and a few friends and met us there.

The boys loved the stadium! In fact I think they loved pretty much everything about going to the game except for maybe the score! We took them into the team shop and within seconds it was decided to buy each of the boys their own personalized ASU jerseys! I won't mention the price but I will say, the boys were in heaven!

We've told the boys all sorts of ASU game day stories from back when we had ASU season tickets. We wanted to warn them about the things they might hear or see. Our kids have only been exposed to BYU games and I'll be the first to say that BYU games and ASU games are nothing alike! But then it turned out that these 50 yard line seats were surrounded by much older and calmer people. The student section wasn't even were we could hear them. And then I overheard the people sitting next to us talking about BYU's team. At first I thought I must have just been hearing things, but then I heard it again! So I turned and started talking with them. And would you believe that we just so happened to be sitting by a couple of BYU students! So this ASU football experience turned into the BYU version. It was very PG! It really couldn't have been any better! ...Well, except for the score!

Just before heading back home we had an Adair family party at Kendall's house in Lehi. Which made our trip complete! We successfully saw everyone and everything we could in our week long stay. We enjoyed all the family, food and fun! Oh, and did I forget to mention the warm weather? We enjoyed the warm weather too!

Handsom Ethan had a birthday!

I can hardly believe that my BABY is 14 years old!
It seems like just yesterday we were bringing him home from the hospital. I had never felt that kind of love for anyone in all my life! And now look at him! He sure doesn't look like a baby anymore! In fact, he's turned into quite the handsome young man!

We celebrated his birthday Ethan style with a pumpkin pie from Costco.
And then David and I took him to a BYU football game, just the 3 of us!

Happy Birthday Baby!

Our bowling ball!

Carsten has been referred to as a 'bowling ball' a time or two. This kid is one rough tough little guy! He runs through things as if he doesn't feel pain! He's fearless! And needless to say this is one his is attributes that makes him such a good football player. He's a fast, hard hitting, fearless little bowling ball!

But this year we found out that Carsten in fact does feel pain. He was at a scrimmage and during the warmups he was taking a hand off and somehow he did something to his knee. He didn't know what he did, all just knew that it hurt! It was crazy to see how the feeling of pain affected him emotionally! He became an emotional basket case! He sat out for the first little while and then finally after he couldn't stand to watch them play without him anymore, he went into the game. A few plays later we thought that he had been injured again as he laid on the ground crying. We took him back out of the game and after lots of questioning about what was hurt we found out that he was crying because he missed his block! Oh my gosh! This kid was hurt! Crying over a missed block? Carsten doesn't cry over anything!

One week before the championship game we ended up taking him to our good friend Dr. Higbee. Dr. Higbee is a chiropractor and also one of the chiropractor's for BYU athletics. He adjusted him putting his knee back in place and then he did laser therapy and acupuncture. This was a whole new experience for Carsten!

{Carsten with acupuncture needles sticking in his arm.}

But Carsten was more than willing to do whatever it took to get better!

It's crazy how it works, you stick needles in your right arm to help your left knee, but it seemed to do the trick! Carsten took a few days off of practice and come championship game day Carsten was as good as new!

Thank you Dr. Ben Higbee for squeezing us into your schedule and taking the time to heal our little bowling ball! You are the best!

Carsten is a CHAMPION!

First off I would like to explain... I've been struggling in the picture taking department! I either bring my camera and then forget to take a picture, bring my camera and forget to take it out of the car, or I forget to bring my camera all together!
And might I say, this is so unlike me!
I got a new iphone and have taken some pictures on it but up until now I didn't know how to get the pictures onto my computer! I know, I know, It's pretty pathetic! And blogging without pictures is like reading a book without pictures, much to boring and way too wordy!

So at least a month and a half after the event I would like to announce that Carsten is a CHAMPION!!!
Carsten and his 4th grade football team have won the championship game and ended their season with nothing but WINS!
THEY ARE UNDEFEATED CHAMPIONS!!

This cute little bunch of boys have taken 2nd place for the past 2 years in a row and finally they have done it!

It was such a fun game to watch! Carsten played awesome too! He was by far the defensive player of the game! He had a couple of sacks that were so crucial to their win! Lone Peak's quarterback is a great athlete. And Carsten figured out how to get into the backfield and take his legs right out from under him! It was AWESOME!

There is just something special about hearing all the coaches and parents praise your son for his great efforts. "Way to go Carsten!"

Carsten is a good little athlete!

We couldn't be happier for him and the great year he's had.
Way to go #1!

New Family Pictures

My cousin Heidi Payne is a good little photographer. Every fall we meet up and she takes our family pictures. And every year I absolutely love them! This year we met up in American Fork by that cute little restaurant, Flower Girl Dough Boy. There are so many great backgrounds right there. Old buildings, piles of broken up concrete and stacks of old lumber, the old Sticky Shoes Theater, and some glass company is right there too and they have stacks of glass window panes leaning up against their building. So many great backgrounds to choose from! Here are just a few.

This one was taken in front of that old building right next door.

This white garage door is right behind the Sticky Shoes Movie Theater.

Ethan insisted on taking this picture. He wanted us all to line up according to our height. Yes Ethan is taller than David and I both! And proud of it! Actually we are all pretty proud! David really hopes for all of his boys to end up taller than himself.

The kids individual shots turned out super cute too!

ETHAN
Ethan never wants to smile big for pictures. Actually I think it's more about showing his teeth. He always does one of those closed lip smiles. Well Heidi got him smiling so big that he was just on the verge of laughter! Too cute!

BRADON
Bradon is always so cute, easy going and happy!

CARSTEN
This kid is so into fashion! He's very particular about his clothes and hair do. This is his hairdo of choice right now, the fauxhawk!

REAGAN
Our little princess! She's such a beautiful doll!

TALAN
Mr. Personality! And smart as a whip! He loves having his picture taken. All the attention he can get the better!

And last but not least, David and I!
Wow! Now there's a couple of cute little hotties! {Chuckle! Chuckle!}