Christmas!

Christmas came and went. Wow, that was fast. Rylee was in a play with her kindergarten class...The penguin that saved Christmas. It was cute. She was a reindeer. Jacob had a sock exchange and came home with the cutest socks with pink, green and yellow hearts. He loves them and wears them. He scares me. They go great with the piggy pajamas Tasha made him for Christmas. Just cute pics of the kids:...... One of our Christmas Eve traditions.. Graham cracker houses. Reid and Chad changed theirs up. They used pretzel logs (Reid's idea, for Lincoln's cabin of course.) Jacob did join in with us, but somehow was missed in the picture taking. Tanner had to do his alone because he had to go to work. Oh the joys of growing up. Rylee and her new fridge. We found it at a garage sale this summer. She has been dying to know what it was. It was worth the wait. We went to Chad's parents for Christmas Eve and had a nice night. Missed my other family, though. The kids woke us up this year. It used to be us that did the waking until about 3 years ago. We thought our kids were weird. Chad and I would be showered and dressed, wondering if they were ever going to wake up. They did wait till 7. We had a nice day, lots of movie watching, relaxing and napping. I had to teach Relief Society today for a friend. I was teaching the talk that Pres. Monson gave in Conference. Finding Joy in the Journey. Ironic? I thought so. So, that was in my head for the last few days. Now, I am looking forward to a week of few responsibilities, no worries of getting things ready. Maybe the boys and I will clean out the house. Probably not. We took the tree out the day after Christmas. We found out why we usually chop our own down. It was pretty sad looking, and probably should have gone out a week earlier. I was afraid of it catching fire every night. We didn't dare turn the lights on. Oh well, we still had a wonderful Christmas, hope you all did too. Happy Newey Year! Oh, I almost forgot. Reid got a huge dinosaur lego thing for Christmas, he and Jacob spent most of the day putting it together, so I told him I'd put a pic of it on here.

Blake concert

Blake had a Jazz Band concert at the Festival of Trees last week. It was pretty good. Here's a sample. I was a bad mom and forgot the video camera and my camera, so this is off my phone. Bad recording, but you get the point. He's the blur on the top second from the right. He plays the trumpet. Love Christmas. MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!

A day in the life of Rylee

Rylee took my phone a couple days ago at work and thought she'd document her life. This is a very fuzzy picture of where she spends way too much time. Her little chair, bucket, lunch bag, and bucket that holds coloring books, toys, and lots of movies.

My sweet baby .

Yep, sometimes she even helps me work. child labor laws? do they apply to your own child?

Is that a sincere smile? Happy to be there! Do you think I scare the customers away?

I guess that's the angle she always sees me. ICK

Beautiful self portrait

Her angel. Lots of pictures with angel around the restaurant.

One of my employees gave her candy. I now have about 10 pictures of her candy hand.

Me cleaning! The restaurant was really clean that day. My house? another story altogether.

Precious!

We have about 200 pictures now on my camera. Thanks Rylee! Every inch of the restaurant documented forever!

Conversation with Rylee

Reid threw up last night, so Chad and I were trying to decide if he should go to church today. Rylee says, "if he stays home, can I too?" We laughed, "no, you're not sick" "But I had a sore throat" (yesterday) "No, you have to go to church" Chad then said, "Do you want me to spin you around really fast so you will be sick?" Rylee: "YES! PLEASE spin me around really fast, PLEASE!" So, Chad didn't actually do it, but I don't know why we've never had an issue with my 4 boys about going to church. But my little girl has been fighting us on this since she was 2! Go figure. Can't wait till she's 14!

Halloween

Just thought I'd post my cute kids and their costumes. Tanner and Blake dress up as good as their parents do. Jacob is a...well, Jacob. Reid is George Washington. We took him in to his 1st grade teacher who started this fascination so she could see that he's not outgrown it yet. Rylee is a cute bumblebee, she loved that everyone told her how cute she was. Reid got tired of telling people he was not Jack Sparrow. I thought we did a pretty good job of turning him into George Washington. I just realized I put the picture in without his wig. Here's with the wig. Happy November!

pictures!

I am supposed to be working on a response to a mean person, but thought this would be funner. Reid's b-day was yesterday. He has been so excited. It's been so much fun to see the youthful enthusiasm I wish I had. He's been counting down for months. FINALLY it came (and went). He's 9 now. I can't believe it. He has been such a joy and a delight to our family. I read to him yesterday from my journal about when he was born. I said what a happy content baby he was. He still is! So, here's some pics of his big day. He opened presents before school, went to lunch with mom, dad, and Rylee, back to school, dinner with family, gpa and gma newey, and Melissa, then cake, ice cream and pumpkin carving. Fun day for us.

Can you guess who carved which pumpkin?

Jacob missed the last two days of school with a flu bug. I decided to cut his hair since he was here. Do you think he needed it? I told him to tell his teacher he wasn't really sick, it just took mom two days to cut his hair. He is even cuter when you can see his eyes. Judge for yourself... Blake made Jazz Band! Yea Blake! can't wait to see them perform at Christmas time. Tanner made the high school one too. Good job guys! I saw pics of Tanner's dance. I'll scan them Sunday. So.... to be continued. You have to look again then to see.

Blake's First Dance

i went with blake to his first stake dance last night and yes, he did dance. mostly by himself, but once with a girl. we're alive we survived the madness of many people coming within a short amount of time to the NYB yesterday. i started my old job again this week. 4 more hours till reids birthday. (written by tanner) scouts, piano, meetings, work, tis all for now.