Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve day Tanner's cousins came and picked us up to go on a "sleigh ride". Everyone had a blast. Benson even came and we all tried to stay warm while singing carols around the town. Andrew was with my dad, and brother-in-law playing racquetball and missed the ride. But I think he had fun with them.
"Brrrrr"

Every year our home town has a Christmas Eve program which I LOVED as a kid. You have to sing as loud as you can so Santa will find the way to the church where we all are, then you here the thunder of hoof prints on the roof then Santa comes to visit. Great fun!!! Tanner is looking a little tired, it most have been a slow part in the program.

Andrew anticipating Santa's arrival.

Busting out the Macarana dance! (or however you spell it)

My parents exchange student Ase, me, niece Chelsey, and sister-in-laws Kodi and Judy.

Getting crazy!

Colby, grandpa, Tanner, and Jonathan

Is it bed time yet?

Singing loud for all to hear!

Bunch of the cousins in the crowd!

Tanner going through the bag of candy Santa gave him and wondering, "Why did Santa give me squirrel food?" (There was peanuts in the shells in the bag and he watches the Chip and Dayle Donald Duck cartoons). Andrew and I thought it was too funny!

Benson and aunt Amber

Last year we had the kids act out the nativity scene, but this year the night flew by and soon it was time for bed. My parents took the kids for a quick pop-up story of "The Night Before Christmas". Tanner loved it, Benson fell asleep, and Andrew and I relaxed with our arms free!

Grandma Martha's 97th Birthday bash!

Blowing out the candles... no there was not 97!

Grandma giving Tanner an orange after she told her wonderful orange story.

I can't compare to how she tells it, but for a short version so you know what I am talking about...

Her dad would buy a box of oranges every year at Christmas and give one to each of his children and also the the children around the small town. It was the only time the entire year they got to see an orange let alone get to enjoy the wonderful taste.

I love listening to her tell the story and every time I see an orange it makes me think of her.

And so now each year at Christmas she gives one to all her many grand and great grandchildren.

Grandma and Benson

First night in Vegas

People go to Vegas to party.... or pray!

Tanner, and cousins Noah and Carlaya lined up to say their bedtime prayers. It was to cute not to hurry and go get the camera.
Tanner grabbed the camera and snapped a shot of my sister Camille and me.

For the Christmas vacation we were able to go to Nevada for a couple weeks to be with family. Tanner loved getting to spend time with all his cousins. This was the first night we were there!

Early December

Benson had his first play date with someone HIS AGE. They pretty much did there own thing but did make some cute faces back and forth and tried grabbing each other.
Benson and Amelia G.

You have to love these boys!

It's getting chilly out here!

Tanner's fort has slowly dwindled down to twigs. So until the leaves come back, I think he's done playing in it.

Tanner- "Love you Benson"

Tanner and his friend Jackson made this "Tower". I said it was a cool dragon and they corrected me that is was indeed a TOWER!

Benson 6 months old

So behind!

It's been a month now since I posted! So be looking out in the next few days for a ton of posts as a try to catch up with all my new pictures!
I've had a great holiday break and I hope you all have as well!!!

The Outdoor World

This past Saturday Andrew and I decided we wanted to take the kids to a movie since we have never done it as a whole family since we moved to Nebraska. Sad I know! So everyone was excited to go but Andrew was going into work in the morning and was to get off at noon. So I got the kids ready to go, everyone feed so there was no crying and ready to go BEFORE noon. Noon comes around 12:30, 12:45. So I loaded up the kids and said forget Andrew we are going or else we'll miss the movie. I called Andrew once we got there and he didn't answer. He called me back and said they were busy and would come when he could. As you can imagine we both were upset by this time. I left him, he didn't call me and tell me. So I was still about to go with out him because the next showing of the movie wasn't for another 3 hours, Tanner was in the back crying he wanted to see the movie and Benson was getting restless in his car seat, when I thought I'd just go look at Outdoor World and calm down. It was the perfect solution!!!

Santa's workshop was set up! Tanner got to go sit on Santa's lap, make a ornament Santa head out of a fishing bobble, shoot a lazer gun and bow at targets, and play with a remote control truck. We were still playing when Andrew finally got off work and met us there at 2:30. (I am sure the people working there were wondering what on earth we were doing!) By that time I got over my stupidity and apologized for being a crazy nuts-o and leaving him and him for not calling. Tanner then took Andrew and showed him things around the store. We left to grab a bite to eat and were just in time for the movie! Our perfect day that turned rotten ended up being perfect again in the end! It was fun even though mom is crazy sometimes!

The lights

These aren't very good pictures but as we were driving home from the institute after Thanksgiving dinner I asked Andrew to drive downtown because they were supposed to be turning on all the lights covering blocks of trees. So he agreed and regretted it as soon as he did because we got stuck in traffic. It took us a half an hour to go a few blocks because everyone was coming to see the "turning on of the lights". After being at a stand still I asked a police officer what time the lights come on. He said 6:12... I know that's what I thought, RANDOM! Anyhow.. it was 6:03. I was worried that by the time they turned on the lights we would have rounded the corner and missed the whole thing. But nope... because of the awesome slow traffic we were able to watch them turn on the millions of twinkle lights, listen to some Christmas music, watch a bunch of horse drawn carriages all the the comforts of our car. Andrew then admitted it wasn't THAT bad having to wait in the traffic.

THANKSGIVING

These were in the institute!

Tanner doing the "Strut Mr. Turkey, that's a fancy way to walk" song!

For Thanksgiving seven families, including ours borrowed the institute building and had our dinner there. It was a lot of fun. Shauna G. did a wonderful job organizing the whole thing, and it couldn't have gone any better. The decorations were great! We had appetizers to start us off with cheese balls, Lil' Smokes, and veggies. The the dinner of all the traditions Thanksgiving foods. The kids then played and made turkey hats while the adults played pool, ping-pong, Foosball, and talked about old stories. Then we busted out all the pies. Pumpkin, Key Lime, Chocolate, Banana, Cherry Cheese Cake, and I am sure there where more.

There ended up being 29 1/2 people there; 14 adults, 10 kids, 5 babies, and one on the way!

It was a great feast and I am so glad to have shared it with such great people!

On Saturday November 22nd, about 15 girls from the complex were I live went to lunch at Famous Dave's before heading over to see Twilight. Then at the movie I think there was 23 or 24 of us there to top of the girls DAY out. A few of the girls had even went the night before to the midnight movie waiting in line for hours. Too funny! I thought the movie was okay, but the book are by far so much better. I think I would have liked the movie more with a different Edward, someone who looked good... but Andrew doesn't act, so that wouldn't have worked. ;)

Bath Time

These two fishies love their baths... and their hair!

After being out in the cold!

Benson and I after playing outside for a couple of hours with Tanner. It is already getting to cold for me and I think our playing outside days are over.

Tanner's Birthday night

Tanner's Batman cake, he thought it was pretty cool. I surprised him with the Batman on top, I didn't get a picture of him blowing out the candles though because I video taped it.
Presents

The black knit gloves on his hands are "Batman gloves"... or so he says!

I had to go to an Enrichment activity because I am the Enrichment Leader and leave my boys behind for a few hours. It was kind of sad for me but this is mostly all I missed out on. Tanner climbing up and licking the icing off the top. So Andrew snapped a quick picture then told him he better stop. We didn't end up sharing the cake with any friends and threw about half of it away!

Tanner's Birthday afternoon

Helping mom make his "black cake" aka CHOCOLATE.
When Andrew got home from school he said he wanted to be a "fun dad" and take Tanner somewhere cool. So we headed off to "The Amazing Pizza Machine"- which really was amazing. Take Chuck-E Cheese and all those other arcade pizza places and make them into one and they still wouldn't be as cool. Tanner was to little to do some of the things but they had tons of arcades, bowling, go-carts, bumper cars, a little train, the shooting things they have at carnivals, and pretty decent food. Tanner loved it and asked to go back every morning he woke up for almost a week after we took him.

The Family

Tanner's Birthday morning

On Tanner's birthday while Andrew was still in school I took the boys to the Children's Museum to play. Tanner always has a blast and it killed a few hours without me feeling bad for not doing something cool for his birtday!

Benson's 1st hair cut!

On November 15th, I gave Benson his first hair cut.... or trim off the top only. But I still thought it should be documented.