Christmas Happenings

What a good Christmas we had this year. The boys are at such fun ages, I could hardly wait for them to open presents and have fun with their new stuff. I didn't take a ton of pictures on Christmas morning...you know, you get kinda side tracked once the kids start opening presents and they are so excited. Also...it takes to long to open the toys for kids now...with all the dumb packaging.

Logan loves these Hulk gloves....I'm sure the boys will have fun with them, but my guess is somone will end up crying (probably Logan)

I got Jason a couple of suprises.....an ipod, GPS and a new golf club. I loved it...he didn't know about any of them.

Over at Grandma and Grandpa Sheppard's on Christmas morning. We made our way over there...it took forever to get there. We had to pack everything up (cause we were leaving for Idaho that afternoon) and it was like a blizard outside. Tons of snow...wind....and bad roads. Jason had to even drive his truck so he could take Beau in his kennel since his mom and dad were watching him while we went to Idaho. So it was a real production just to get there. We of course got spoiled more at their house. I got a new camera from them....my favorite! You would think that as much as I take picture I would have invested in a nicer camera before now, but I have had the same old camera for years (and I think I even got it free somewhere). So they got me a nice Nikon Coolpix camera...and what a difference. I love it!

We always have a nice breakfast over at Jason's parents, then do gifts....then this year we were heading out to Idaho. So we got on the road early so we could get all the way to my parents before dark. The first half of the drive wasn't bad weather really, but the second half wasn't fun. We had to really slow down and take it easy in all the snow.....but we made it.

The kids....passed out....Christmas can be alot of work! :)

Being at my parents house was the funnest part of Christmas to me. I just loved being there, hanging out with everyone. Just being lazy and not doing much. Here is Bridger playing with some of his new legos (he loves to build).

Bridger and Logan....Logan loves his new Leapster he got.

Grandpa helping Logan with a new puzzle.

Kristi modeling my new camera case. It was funny, I had just mentioned that I needed to make sure and get a case for my new camera so it didn't get banged up, and off goes mom to sew me a little case. My mom really is amazing, she can sew anything and is so talented. I love the new case...its working out great!

This is what the living room looked like most the weekend. Everyone just laying around and playing games and having a good time. It was great to see everyone!

Kristin kept trying to get some quality snuggle time in with Logan, but most of the time he just doesn't hold still (or stop talking) long enough to really snuggle or relax! Nice try though!

And last, but not least! We did some karaoke. I took our stuff to Idaho. I thought it would be fun for the whole family to get in on. They loved it. Of course...whats not to love right?

As if the roads on the way to Idaho weren't bad enough....here we are on the way back to Utah. I don't mind driving in the bad weather...I just hate all the idots that still try passing you and still just keep driving so fast. We also got a nice big chip in the windsheild. There is so much salt and gravel on the roads it just kicks up at your car. We were not happy about that at all....who wants new chips and dings on a new car?

Once again, we made it home just fine and overall had a great Christmas and long weekend in Idaho.

Christmas Eve

On Christmas Eve we headed over to Ted's for dinner and hanging out. He made a big ole' pot of Fondue. I had never had Fondue before....and it was awesome. Thanks Ted and Tami for having us over. It was quite the process to prepare the fondue....who would have thought.

Sitting down to enjoy......

We also did a little karaoke to finish out the night. As you can see Logan always likes to get in on the action. I would have liked to get some video of Ted singing, but he said he wouldn't sing if there were any cameras around.

Logan and Uncle Ted

When we got home we let the boys open their new PJ's and then sent them off to bed.

I had to show this cute new plate and mug that I got this year. We of course had to leave out "cookies and milk" for Santa. Jason told the boys that he was pretty sure Santa liked donuts better than cookies...so thats what we did! :)

My Cute Boys!

We were trying to capture some cute shots of the boys for Christmas card. These aren't the ones we used...but I thought they were pretty cute!

Christmas Lights

We finally got all the lights hung on the house and trees. I don't know why we put ourselves through this each year. This year was worse cause I put lights on all the trees in the front yard (there are 10 trees...and then the shrubs too) and by the time we were done we had extension cords everywhere. Nothing like lights to get you in the mood for the holidays...just kidding. I do love once they are up and light up the house!

Christmas Party

Friday night we had a little get together with our favorite friends, Tiff, Bob, Mindy and Jeff. We decided to have a Christmas party with a nice dinner and hanging out. It turned out to be tons of fun (like it always is with these couples).We had the works, turkey, potatoes, stuffing, yams and rolls. We were all stuffed full!

We thought it would be funny to do white elephant gifts...and it was funny! I had to do a close up of what Tiffany and Bob brought. Who DOESN'T recognize this leg lamp? Classic!!!

So, Tiff and Bob brought the leg lamp (I think its awesome...I want my own now), Mindy and Jeff brought the febreze, pork and beans and laxatives (Nice), and me and Jason gave the pastic with baby oil (thanks to some good old friends for the idea). We laughed lots and thought the gifts were great!

We played some games later....and none of us had the kids there so it was just so nice to hang out with the adults and have that night to ourselves.

Child Abuse Update

Not that this is a fun thing to talk about...but I have had several people ask me if there is any update on our neighbors that were arrested for child abuse in October. Mary the aunt of the kids has pead guilty and taken a plea deal. She was originally charged with 9 counts of child abuse and 1 count of sexual abuse. With her plea deal the dropped the sexual abuse charge and dropped it to 4 counts of child abuse. The news was talking about the amount of time she could face in prison. 2 of the charges have a maximum sentence of 15 years and the other 2 have a maximum of 5 years. Some poeple offer thier comments on the news website and think that after all is said and done she could maybe only really face 5 to 10 years sentence, but maybe even get out after just a couple of years. She will officially be sentenced in court on January 15th.

I think that they are still working on some sort of similar plea deal with Sekoa (Blue).

I don't know how I feel about this. I mean I can't beleive that they could take away so many of the charges. Someone needs to pay for what happened to the kids. I'm not the one to judge and decide what they should or shouldn't get, I guess I'm just shocked at how this all works and how many charges they dropped.

There hasn't been much news about the kids...they do alot to protect their privacy. We do know that in about a month and a half they have doubled in weight. They are together in a foster home now. Still not sure where they will end up. But glad to hear they are gaining weight and doing good.

New Jeep

Jason and I have been looking for a new car for a while. We have looked at everything....but we finally decided on a Jeep Commander. To be honest...if you don't like it at first its ok...neither did I. When Jason first mentioned it I said no way. But then we went and looked at them and I really liked it. So once we knew that is what we wanted, the search began. So this is what I ended up with. I loved the white...just stays looking clean longer than the dark colors. Jason did a really good job negotiating at the dealership. I have to say...I really hate that part. I would have caved, but Jason told them exactly what we needed in order to walk away with the car (I thought it was a long shot for sure) but they did what we wanted (after getting several managers involved). We got a good deal on the Jeep and on our trade in...and we had them "throw" in a DVD player. Anyway...totally love my new ride!

On a side note...I have only been driving the Jeep for a day since we had the DVD player installed. I just have to say, "How have I not had a DVD player before now?". I called Jason yesterday while I was out running errands with Logan. I said, "Jason, I have been in the car for about 20 minutes and Logan hasn't said one word". He was just watching his movie. For any of you that has been around Logan...you all know what a chatter box he can be. The questions and comments never stop from that kid. Its cute and all....but sometimes I would just really like a quit moment to myself....well now I got it.

Elf Yourself

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

So many leaves.....

We had quite the project this weekend to clean up all our leaves. We have been looking at the back yard for a couple weeks, just completely covered in leaves. I mean really, we coud no longer see grass! So Saturday we started...our goal was to blow all the leaves over to the gate then just back the truck up to the gate and haul them all away. It took several hours to just blow them all to the gate, then Sunday morning and 4 truck loads later we had them all cleaned up. I'm sure our neighbors love it too....cause I bet most of the leaves went in their yards. :)

University of Utah vs. BYU

So it was the big U of U vs. BYU game on Saturday....and we had to think of something to do for our neighbor. He is a huge U of U fan, and Jason is a BYU fan. There is always so much trash talking going on and stuff between Justin and Jason, so the last two years BYU has won. Well last year we went down and spay painted the score on Justin's lawn in bright orange. The very next day he was out mowing his lawn down as low as he could to get the score off the grass....it was dang funny.

So this year....we decided to paint this bench (even the bench has a long history between some of us neighbors) as you can see below, it was just a ugly old bench so we thought we would spice it up. So on Saturday, about 11am, Justin heads out to go tailgate at the game. So we go down to his house and put the bench on his front porch and we also took his U of U huge flag that he hangs out. So a couple hours later, we took a picture on my phone and sent it to him, one of me holding his flag, and the other of the new bench on his porch. It said something along the lines of "looks like your a BYU fan today", "glad your representing BYU at your house"....just a bunch of messages like that. He about died. I sent him a message that said "it has to get under your skin just a little to know that every person that drives by your house today thinks your some crazy BYU fan with and ugly painted bench on their porch".

So long story short....BYU got beat so bad....so that kinda sucked, but it was all fun. Justin has warned us that we better watch out and that he was going to get us back, so we were on watch to see what he was going to try. At about 10pm I told Jason I was going to look and see if Justin was home yet, so I stuck my head out the door and there was a big U spray painted on my sidewalk and the score was all over the lawn in red paint. About hald hour later, we heard someone pull up and it was Justin and his friends bringing back the bench....it now had red spray paint all over it saying "BYU sucks"! All in all...it was pretty fun going back and forth like that. The only thing....we still have the flag....and I told Justin he is not getting it back until that U gets taked off my sidewalk. To be continued......

Babysitting

We got to watch Payton on Saturday night so Lani and Craig could go to a Halloween party. We were so excited to have her out. The boys just loved playing with her...and he was a perfect little girl. Don't they look like trouble? Of course....we had to let Payton play in the kitchen drawers...her favorite.

I think that Bridger was doing most of the hugging here....her face looks a little scared.

The funniest was Payton and Beau all night. She jsut thought he was so funny. She would walk up and touch him then run away laughing. He just pretty much layed there ignoring her, but she was for sure getting a kick out of it. Me and Jason just kept laughing about it.

Photo Shoot

On Saturday we had to run in with Jason while he went to someones house for work. Me and the boys waited in the truck....thats always fun. I started taking pictures of them cause they thought it was pretty funny. We were saying funny things to make them laugh. But when I looked through the pictures...I actually thought they were pretty cute. I love Logan's huge smile....and look at Bridger with his front teeth missing. So cute!

They were both just laughing so hard that I started laughing too.

Last but not least....this is Logan's new thing. He does thumbs up to everything. Sometimes me or Jason will be getting after him for something and he turns and just gives "thumbs up". Its hard not to laugh about.