Christmas in Canada

We braved the scary winter roads to spend Christmas with my family in Canada. It was totally worth it, especially since I got to see my new adorable niece Catie, who is a little angel baby, never cries and sleeps all night. The boys had a blast playing with their cousins Riley, Gage, and Brenden. At least, they had a blast when they weren't fighting. What do you expect from 6 little boys, right? We got to go ice skating, something I really love, and haven't done for about 15 years. Joey pretty much hated it, no surprise there, though. Jason had the time of his life and says he wants to play hockey now. That will never happen since I'd have to get up at unholy hours of the morning to take him to practice, and fork out a fortune for equipment and ice time. Tyler also liked it a lot. We'd like to go again sometime, but who know when, since we learned that it would be virtually impossible withouth the help of many adults. It takes 2 just to keep them on their feet.
Me and my brother-in-law, Brad with Jason.

This picture of Tyler is deceiving because it looks like he can do it himself. Really we propped him up for a few seconds and took some quick pictures. This is more like it.
We also got to visit my Grandma West, which was awesome, since most likely the boys won't get a chance to see her again since she is not in very good health.

Tyler went for a ride with her on the wheelchair.

Christmas was fun, and Santa even found us at Grandma's house. No surprise, since Santa is Canadian, after all.
Jason got a ball launcher thingy that he's been asking for for months, Tyler got a train set with puzzle tracks, and Joey got his dream come true, a Lego Star Wars video game. They also got a million other toys that they can't get enough of--no boredome these days!
I love Christmas, and especially with all the family. If only we didn't live so far away. Alas.

New family pictures

I've been dying to share these gorgeous pictures my incredibly talented friend Katie took of our family. I've had to keep them secret because I made my mom a calendar using all these pictures and I wanted them to be a surprise for her. Now that christmas is over I can finally post them!

Years ago, actually at a baby shower my ward did for me when I was pregnant with Joey, at the host's house there were adorable pictures of her kids all over her house. Ever since then I've dreamed of having such pictures. These really were a dream come true.

Such cute boys!

Thanks Katie, you really are amazing!!

Tyler was really excited about seeing Santa. We went too early and Santa wasn't there yet, so we had to go home and come back later, and you would have thought we were the meanest parents ever, to not let him see Santa when we said he could.
He said he was going to ask him for some candy for christmas. Lucky for him that black bag on the bench was full of candy--and not just candy canes, it was the good stuff like candy bars and suckers. He grabbed a humongous handful, and was quite disappointed when we made him put most of it back. I asked him what he asked santa for and he said, "This," indicating his candy.
Joey has some serious doubts about Santa, so it's not quite as exciting for him anymore. It was a little suspicious that he had an english accent. He sounded American last year. Just like last year Jason refused to get out of the cart. He was sad when his brothers got candy, so I went with him to ask Santa for some. Really, I dragged him while he protested strongly. But I knew he'd be happy after he had the candy. And he was. He'll have to write a letter so Santa knows for sure what he wants (a nerf gun thing that is supposed to be a fire hose that shoots out blue balls that are supposed to be the water when you pull back a crank). Luckily Santa has insider information and has already got it for him. Good 'ol Santa.

Halloween

We made it to the pumpkin patch this year, but of course forgot the camera. Maybe it's for the best anyway, since we would have captured 2 sad, crying kids. Jason got car sick on the way and Tyler fell asleep and woke up really grumpy. They had this cute little maze made out of hay bales there, and cheered up after playing in it for a while.

Tyler was disgusted by the inside of the pumpkin. He was really careful not to touch any of it. Joey actually helped get the stuff out. I think he kind of liked it.

Tyler didn't like Joey's (the big one) and cried and made us turn the lights on. Too scary, he said.

Trick or treating was fun, and I was really grateful that we all got to go, since all of us had been really sick for several days before Halloween and I was afraid someone was going to miss out.

Joey is Darth Vader, with this helmet that was really awesome but unfortunately made him blind as a bat out in the dark. He ditched it after awhile. Jason is Jango Fett, a bounty hunter from Star Wars. I didn't know who he was until my boys got obsessed with the movie. Now I know more than I ever wanted to know about Star Wars. Tyler is R2D2. His costume turned out really cute, I thought. I'm starting to really hate all of his dang buttons and things, though, after making a cake and now a costume.
It was a great Halloween, with plenty of fun and candy for all.

What?

Jason is 5

I'm very proud of the R2-D2 cake I made, even though it's a little stubby and gloppy. I always make the cake the night before because there's no time on their birthday, and it usually happens late at night, after they're in bed because that's the only way I can have any uninterrupted length of time. But I think they're starting to think there's a "cake Santa" or something. After he saw it Tyler ran to get me and show me. "Look! An Artoo cake!" Like I had nothing to do with it. He got two very cool star wars ships, and check out that look of delight over a pack of gum!

When Joey busted open the pinata with one wack Tyler said "Oh! A sock!" Indeed, a dirty little sock had burst out of the pinata along with all the candy. There was also a hotwheels car and some legos. He had added a few "extras," unbeknownst to us.

End of Soccer

They are so proud of the medals they got. As much fun as it was, I'm really glad it's over because we will have 3 more free nights a week now (yay for me, they can get their chores done for once, too bad for them), and because it's getting really cold; those last two games were miserable! Fortunately I thought Joey's was at 6:30 (it was really at 6:00--oops!) so we only had to sit huddled together in the cold for half an hour.