Snow and Fun and Family... oh, and Christmas

Been awhile... obviously :)

Our whole family on Christmas Day-

fun time sledding and shooting after the presents and naps were over :)

December saw the little boys performing in their hip hop dance recital

and some fun Christmas songs at school...

and our classic throw-together style nativity at the family party :) This year we also added a talent show as part of the party and it was so fun! Cooper did a joke routine and Ryder did and little bit of dancing- cute, cute cute! Everyone's part was just fun :)

We loved having Taron and Keaton with us over the Christmas break- actually for both holidays.

New Christmas eve jammies- the older are much too cool to be included in pics like this these days ;)

More of Christmas Day 

Then we paid a few dollars to be able to shoot at the range for the rest of the month- we went twice and it was a great way to break up our lazy days! Love these boys :)

Fun Fall Festivities

These last few days things have turned seriously cold (like, middle of the winter, for real, below freezing cold), but it's still technically Fall, so I thought I'd share some of the fun we've been having lately. :)

Fall is hunting season in large part for this house full of boys. We've most recently been going after pheasants on Saturday mornings- obviously in this trip above it wasn't below freezing yet! This year Stephen got me a shotgun of my own that is a bit smaller and lighter- it's been fun honestly. I really want some cool rooster tail feathers to decorate with, but we've only come home empty handed so far.

This year Stephen and Taron tried harder than they ever have before to get Taron his first kill. Cooper got to go out with them some and obviously couldn't have been much more thrilled about it! :) Dad and Taron had general deer tags and went out twice to no avail. Then Stephen picked Taron up from school one day on his way to clean a tank in Aramo, thinking they could just look around briefly in the process...

... and, of course, that'd be the winning go. I love the look on his face in this picture. So proud of him! and Cooper's been including being thankful for the deer Taron shot in just about every prayer since... :)

Fall calls for pumpkin cookies with cream cheese frosting! That recipe is HERE if you should like- easiest thing ever that Lundyn shared with our family several years ago. They are Ryder's favorite... I just love pics of kiddos licking beaters :)

Went to lunch with Mom and everyone just before Halloween- Brylee and Ryder got a big kick out of the all the great decorations. I told them to try and look like the skeletons did :) 

Family fun at the U Pick Pumpkin Patch. This year they had these cool go carts and a track around the patch to ride them on. They were even big enough for adults- the boys all loved that part!

And Halloween! This year we got to trick or treat around Moore and Mackay since we were there for Stephen's Idaho Falconer's meet. It really was fun- Halloween just like I remember.

More than anything, though, this Halloween will be remembered as the Year of the Dog Bite... Stephen's dog Rocky didn't like seeing Cooper in that fur hat and all the leather fringe all over his moutain man costume! When he stepped up on the step above Stephen, he latched right into Cooper's leg- yikes! So we doctored poor Cooper's crummy dog bit on his thigh for the next two days :/ Bummer but it all worked out in the end.

And just for the fun of it I thought I'd share these simple little gifts the boys gave to their teachers at the end of their first week of school at Ucon. A Fanta pop with a striped stick of hard candy I got at Zurchers! "Thanks for helping us have a fanta.stick first week!" Kinda fun, eh? :) Here's some tags you can right click and save to print if you should have a use for a quick easy little gift too. I thought they might be good for aides and front office ladies and such for Christmas, so I whipped one up quick for that too- enjoy! :)

The Post that's a Bottle

... as in a bottle for time, Time in a Bottle. :)

I know, I know, summer is long over. We actually really are enjoying some fall fun, but I've not been great at blogging lately, even the things that really are important to me to share here. So, I wanted to post some of my favorite pics from the summer and earlier Fall... the ones that just need to be included in this little online story of our life :)

Waiting with Mom at swim lessons. Ry is sure my trooper boy- he gets to tag along with me more than the older brothers by nature and is such a joy! He begs whenever we are away, "Can we go home?" But is still cool about what we are doing out and about too :) I'm so grateful for half day kindergarten!

This one of Taron and Stephen was actually taken the day Taron was ordained a Priest. Can I just say that it's pretty wonderful to hear my own son's voice over the speaker blessing the sacrament? :)  So proud of the strong young man he is!

Hammock at Grandpa and Grandma's :)

Snagged this one quick the night before school started... I was a little watery over sending my baby to school :)

Beautiful night out flying with Stephen earlier in September. He rarely gets the opportunity to fly when we can tag along (or at all, really), so this was a fun night. Cooper happened to have a really loose tooth at the time and they tried to see if they could pull it falconry style...

...not so much... shocker ;)

Yay- our annual girls trip to Logan! For the past two years we've gotten to take a quick day and let the men handle the kids while we browse Hobby Lobby, get HuHot for lunch and grab desserts at Kneaders in Logan- a really great day! I love these sisters and Mom of mine- they are my dearest friends :)

And there's the bottle of time lately. Planning on more, better, genuine sharing to come from here :)

Redfish Icing on our Summer

This summer we've been able to stay fairly close to home (like most always), and still see some really amazing places, making new memories in our most favorite spots. We went to Redfish this year later than we ever have. We certainly faught the weather, but no matter what, we were at Redfish (and with family)! That's awesome in itself ;)

Snatched a quick opportunity when all of the boys were right with me in the boat :) This year we took Taron and Keaton's uncle Sean with us- he's their Mom's adopted younger brother, actually a year younger than Taron! He's been with us a couple times this summer and we really enjoy him.

No one hesitated to jump in on the fun behind the boat our first day there! Good thing because our sunshine didn't really last... I love watching everyone playing in the water :)

This year, to everyone's shock, my Dad actually got a big tube for everyone to use! (He's never been a fan at all of tubes). The little kids loved it! Ryder just lit up riding it- good purchase for sure.

Fun times at the beach too, even is they were wearing sweatshirts some of the time while they were at it!

This year Ryder had his fifth birthday while we were there! It was fun to try and make it a special day. We went to the fish hatchery to fish- everyone did really well there. We tried the Yankee Fork ponds again- we loved them last year- but this year just wasn't great for some reason.

Aunt Lundyn brought a pinata for everyone to have a little beach party with! I had planned several beach games too, but for the most part it was rainy that day, so we just enjoyed the pinata :)

The next day we rented a SUP for the day from Stanley- it was such a hit! It really was fun to use and share with everyone. Conner got the hang of it for sure. I never could do anything but kneel- my balance is so terrible!

Ryder briefly got to enjoy the boat Grandpa and Grandma gave him for his birthday too :)

Of course, we had tree mail again, more casual this year. We included the older boys in our adult Tenzi tournament instead of tree mail and next year, I'm including them anyway- they missed it I think! The Tenzi tournament was one of the trip highlights for sure, though- all of use rolling dice together- so fun!

A great year of Redfish, no matter what- forever, one of my very, very favorite places on earth :)