More Christmas

We left for my parents on Christmas Eve. I was really excited to go to my parents for Christmas because all of my brothers and my sister and their families were going to be there. My dad's family always has a big Christmas Eve party with a great dinner, gift exchanges and the nativity being acted out. It was a full house.

Carter dressed up as a shepherd.

Kennedy in her angel costume.

Dyllan so excited to be in his wise man crown.

My dad getting ready to read the Nativity story.

Sid, Slade and Tracey playing Joseph, baby Jesus and Mary.

Opening presents from the cousins.

 

He got a Magic 8 Ball from his cousin.

Kennedy got a lot of cooking stuff from her cousin.

Tim, Michael, Bret and Shon chatting after the festivities. 

Ryan and my niece Lily in their little lamb ears. So cute.

Ryan got a new pocketknife from his cousin.

Christmas pics

It's kind of late to be posting pictures from around Christmas time, but really, who cares. We took a lot and had a lot of fun through the holidays. Around the middle of December we always have a kid's Christmas party at Chris' office. It's pretty fun, Santa comes and gives everyone a present. There's usually food and a few games for the kids. It gives the spouses a bit of time to get to know each other and hang out for a bit.

This is the first year that when we walked into the room and Carter saw the tree and the chair that Santa sits in that he didn't turn around and say, "OK, we can go home now."

Carter making his candy cane reindeer.

Can't you tell how excited she was to be there.

Ryan spent most of the part calling the bingo numbers.

She wouldn't even acknowledge Santa was there, she was to busy messing with my phone.

Kennedy got a Twilight poster from Santa. Carter got a Webkinz (which I have no idea why he wanted it, he really hasn't touched it since), and Ryan got a new computer game called Bioshock.

And yes, I know that there are no pictures of Chris. But, there is a reason. Once he gets the camera from me, he refuses to give it back. If you look back at his birthday post, you can see, that even when I get the camera from him, he won't let me take any decent pictures anyway.

The last of Carter's Y-ball games

We finished up the last of Carter's Y-ball season about the middle of December. I have to say that it was an enjoyable, fun time for him. He still asks if he has practice and wants to keep playing, which may motivate me to take him the Homecourt a few times a week to shoot some hoops. The backboards there are nice because they can lower them to the 7-foot mark that they play on at the elementary schools. After the last game Coach Thor (yes, that was his name) said something about each of the boys. He told Carter that he has the best and most accurate shot of anyone on the team. Carter felt really good about that. Now, if I can just get him to play some defense we'll be getting somewhere. Anyhow, here are some pictures of the last couple of his games, except for the final one because I forgot the camera and Chris had drill.

Holiday Concert

Kennedy had her holiday band concert back on December 2nd. I know it's way past, but they did really well for a 6th grade band class. The orchestra also performed. It was really fun and only lasted about an hour, so you can't beat that. She's been playing the flute, and she's pretty good. And it's definitely not as annoying when she practices as when Ryan was playing the trumpet. Now that got pretty loud.

Kennedy with her friends Brooke and Megan after the concert.

On another note, Chris had to completely reformat the computer, so here's hoping that all of my previous problems with the computer have vanished and I'll be able to start posted on a regular basis. Fingers crossed.

Posting delays

I know I've been really about about posting in the last month. My mom has made sure to let me know numerous times. But, here's the deal. My computer has just plain sucked lately. I hate that word, but I'm going to use it again. It SUCKS, SUCKS, SUCKS!!!!!!! Everything to do with the internet is going at a snail's pace, even Chris' laptop that's 3 years old moves faster. So, until my wonderful computer literate hubby can fix it for me, who knows how long it will be before I post again.

We had a bunch of birthday pop up right around Thanksgiving. Carter turned 6 on the 22nd, I turned 34 on the 23rd and Ryan turned the big 1-4 on the 25th. What I love about this situation is that my birthday is pretty much a moot point and everyone focuses on the two boys, which is completely fine by me. And, it was even better this year because my mom and sister came for the weekend, they got to watch a basketball game of Carter's and be their for his birthday, which was a treat. So, here's a few pictures from the birthdays.

I'll try to get up a post about the last of Carter's basketball games and Kennedy's Christmas band concert a little later. We'll just see how long it takes for this to post.

Thoughts on a change

We had a pretty major change take place on Sunday in our Ward. To preface, I'll just say that Chris and I have been in the Franklin Ward since we moved into our home in August of 1995. That's quite awhile. We've been through two splits, staying in the same ward, just losing areas.

Well, Saturday we got an e-mail from our Bishop telling us that we weren't having 2nd or 3rd hour classes, but were instead asked to go to the Stake Center for a meeting. Of course, the speculation began. Were we being split, added to or taken from. For me, in Young Womens, with only two Mia Maids, I was really hoping to get some more young women.

Well, lo and behold, we have been moved to a whole new stake, with a couple of neighborhoods added to our ward. Our stake center is now the one next to the Temple. So, yep, we got moved to a Boise Stake. And we gained ONE new young woman with the move. So, I'm trying to find the positives in this move. Hopefully some will present themselves soon. As least we weren't the ward that got totally disbanded and split into 5, yep 5 different wards. I feel real bad for those folks.

So, whaddya think of this??

Weekend activities

The kids had quite a bit going on this weekend. Ryan left on a scout campout Friday night. They were working on their shooting merit badge. It was kind of sad, every one of the boys in his troop wimped out except for him. He passed his shooting test. They had to hit the target a number of times. He said that he had a lot of fun. Kennedy and Carter spent the night at Chris' parents house Friday night so that we could go out to dinner for our anniversary, which was last week. We went to a really good restaurant in Nampa called the Mona Lisa. Very good. We got a little bit of shopping done for upcoming birthdays and Christmas during the week, so Chris went shopping for a new monitor for my computer. It's pretty nice. Which reminds me, I was able to get a new fridge and oven on Thursday. Finally. My old ones were 13 years old and looking pretty bad. The seal on the fridge was shot, the oven wasn't cooking real great. So, yay for me :)

Carter also had another basketball game on Saturday. He scored four points, which is really good. There were probably only about 12 points or so scored for his team. I don't think that the other team scored as many, but maybe. Here's a couple of pics (I'm trying not to feel guilty because the majority of the photos on my blog are of Carter, but I couldn't take pictures on Ryan's campout and Kennedy would through a fit if intruded on her friend time at her grandma's).

Doesn't it look like he is having the time of his life. Mom and Dad, I totally think that you two need to get over here to see this kid in action. We play four more games, only skipping Thanksgiving weekend.

And on another note :)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY

BROTHER MICHAEL       - isn't he a cutie.

Carter's first basketball game

Yesterday Carter had his first Y-Ball game. It's a fun age to watch. They are just getting the basics down and both coaches are allowed on the court with the boys to guide them. They haven't quite got the idea of offense and defense down, so it can be entertaining to watch them trying to play offense while still trying to guard their boy they are assigned to. They will, I'm sure, get it in the next few weeks. It's fun to watch Carter play because this is the one sport he is aggressive in. He really wants to get the ball away from the other team and really wants to shoot the ball.

During warm-ups. He hardly ever missed. That's what happens when you've spent the last few years during your older brother's football practices playing hoops with your mom and dad. Two hours a night, five days a week until school starts and then 1 and 1/2 hours a night four nights a week after school starts.

That's him jumping at the tip-off. He got the concept, just needed to time it a little better.

Overdoing it on the defensive side, but he wasn't about to let that kid by him to score. I wonder where he got that from.

Between quarters. He was having a blast.

Racing the ref down the court. This guy was such a good ref. He had fun with the kids and really helped them out when they needed it.

Carter is the yellow player on the ground going after the loose ball. Every time there was a pile-up on the floor he would go diving in after the ball, even if he was across the gym. What a ham, and then he'd demonstrate for us how to slide across the floor after they got everybody up.

The grin after they scored. Every time his team scored he would do the double-handed fist pump and jump in the air. His coach would have to remind him to run down the floor and play defense.

What I love about this kid is that he was happy every time anyone on his team scored. He was a little bummed that none of his shots went in, but he was just so happy when his team did well. I just had to tell him that next week he'll get to play again and the grin was right back on his face and he was ready to go to practice, but that's not until Thursday night, so he'll ask everyday, can I go to practice tonight?

Also, he was so excited that his Uncle David and Aunt Rachel were here to watch him. It was fun to have them visit. I got to go baby shopping with them. It was fun and we had a great meal last night at the Olive Garden.