The True Meaning of Christmas

Why do we celebrate Christmas?
Every year for Christmas the neighbors directly across the street go all out with decorating their house. This picture does not do it justice. The entire house is decked out with tons of lights and about 20 huge blowup things, with three of them on the roof. So when we go out the front door every night this is what we see. The kids do love it!
Last year Jesse said he wanted to get a nativity scene for our front yard and just have that out, but we never found one that we thought was appropriate enough. Everybody elses yards looked like Disneyland with all the hulabaloo and he wanted something that brought back the true reason why we celebrate Christmas. So, this year we put our normal icicle lights up on the house and that was going to be it. We had seen a nativity scene at Lowes that we liked but it was kind of pricey and was really big to have to store afterwards. A few weeks went by and I went to Lowes to get an extension cord, and when I walked in the doors I noticed that all the Christmas stuff was 50% off !!! The nativity that we had been eyeing was still there. So, we decided it would be a good idea to buy it, and I think we were meant to have it because not only was it 50% off, the last one they had was the one on display and we got it. Don't get me wrong I do love all the lights and funstuff but sometimes we need to stop and remember Christ and His birth and that because of Him we will be resurrected and can return to live with Heavenly Father and our families forever. I feel so much peace and comfort in knowing that if I keep the commandments I can return to live with Him someday and have an eternal family.

The Neighbors

Our Nativity
(it is big, compare it to the roof,
they are all life size manequins)


This is what I found perched on the Christmas tree branch the other day. Mady was playing with her doll and thought it would be a nice decoration to add to the tree.

The kids in their Christmas jammies. Every year as a tradition they get a new pair of Christmas jammies. So cute!!

I love Christmas time! My favorite thing about this time of year is spending so much time with family and loved ones. Jesse kind of gets tired of all the parties and get togethers, but I think they are fun. Some of them we get to see cousins that we only see once a year and others are just fun times of family gift exchanges, dinners, and just being together. Every year we do a gift exchange with the Bodine kids and grandkids. This year we drew names for family gifts. Our family drew Josh and Sabrina's family and Lindsay and John gave to us. We got together at mom and dad's the other night and had the yummiest ham dinner, and had our gift exchange with those that were living here. We usually have to do this early because mom and dad go to the cabin every year for Christmas so they aren't ever here. The kids loved their presents they got from grandma and grandpa, except Dallan wasn't to thrilled with his ring toss game that he got because Spencer got a gun and he didn't. Don't you know grandma, you have to buy 2 of everything. So, the next morning grandma took Dallan to Walmart and he got a gun too. Thanks grandma and grandpa, we love you!

Mason got a rocket launcher and Mady got a real baking set.

Dallan trying to like his game! What a good sport.

A day out fishin'

Over Thanksgiving weekend Uncle Brendan and Aunt Breanna (as Mady thinks) took Mason out to the river to go fishing. Mady was so upset that she couldn't go so Jesse drove out to the river with her and met them there. The kids loved it!! It must have been fun because they stayed out there for about 5 hours. I don't even think the kids caught anything but they had a blast anyway. Good thing the kids have uncles to take them camping and hunting and fishing!
The picture is kind of grainy, Jesse took them on his phone.

It's finally finished!!!!!

Yeah!!! I will refresh your memory on the kitchen before. After about a month long it is finally finished and it looks BEAUTIFUL! I never realized how inconvenient it was to be without a functioning kitchen, especially without a sink with water for about 2 1/2 weeks. I was washing dishes in the bathroom sink and we were eating out too much.
BEFORE

This is one of my favorite things about the kitchen. The bar area and the corbels we added underneath the counter.

The cupboards are a cream color with a chocolate color glaze and a lot of distressing. Jesse did an awesome job on the moulding and trimwork.

This is a close up of the granite, it was called venetian gold. It has a creamy undertone with all different brown flecks and some raspberry flecks.

I am so happy with my new kitchen, it is everything I wanted!!

You might think it's SUMMERTIME!

So, the other day I was doing house cleaning and the kids were out back jumping on the trampoline , I thought. It was a little to quiet for a while so I went out back to check on them and this is what they were doing! Somehow they sneakily put on their swimsuits and were cleaning the little plastic pool out. Mason even got out the duct tape to tape the holes in the bottom of the pool from it drying out and cracking over the summer.


They placed the pool under the slide from the trampoline and filled up the pool and were sliding down into it.


This was when they finally saw me taking pictures of them and they had been caught.

It was pretty warm outside, since we have been breaking record high temperatures. I asked them if they were cold and they both said no. Mady said,"feel my hands mom they are hot like it is outside". Even though Mady had a little bit of a runny nose I let them have their fun, they were at least staying out of my hair and not fighting. When is it going to cool down enough!!!

BOUTIQUE TIME

O.K. so the reason why I had been so far behind on postings and have been slowly catching up is because Dani and I decided to do a bunch of boutiques this year so, we have been really busy. I have been doing the wipes cases and she does all the other stuff. We have had a lot of late nighters trying to get stuff done. Dani has definitely been more busy than me. If anybody is interested she has a website which you can order anything on there it is the cutest baby stuff ever. http://www.danisdesigns.net/

These are some of my wipes cases and personal favorites.

Ballerina

Mady had her last day of dance class and they did a short recital ( I mean short). The attention span was about 5 secs. It was so cute to watch the girls try to follow the teacher and move. She loved taking dance we will have to sign up for another one!

I had her all dressed in her outfit above and the teacher wanted them to all be in pink or purple, so she put leotards over them and it looked ridiculous, Mady's was about 3 sizes too big. Oh, well it was fun anyway.

SWIM-BIKE-RUN

Jesse, along with Brendan, Ginger, Larry & Catie all did the Desert Grande triathalon together.
Me and the kids went to watch, no way could I have done it. Big congratulations to all of them for doing it and finishing!!!!! Jesse does triathalons every so often with his siblings and he never really trains for them, it just all comes natural for him. Way to go!!!!

Everyone waiting to start the race-swim first.


Jesse swimming 400 meters in
10 mins. 12 secs.


Getting ready to bike 10.2 miles. in
46 mins. 13 secs.

Off and running 3 miles in

25 mins. 23 secs.

Yeah, he finished in 1hour 22mins. 18 sec.

What a look of exhaustion.

Visiting Santa at Bass Pro Shops

So, we went to Cracker Barrel for dinner tonight and of course the kids have to go to Bass Pro Shops (they could stay there for hours looking at all the animals). Santa was there and you could get a free picture with him. Mady wouldn't even go close to him, Santa had to throw her candy to her, so that is why Mason is all alone. Mason also got his first air soft gun, that was his reward he picked out for passing his turbo math tests. I wasn't very excited about the idea of any kind of gun but Jesse begs to differ. Mason knows first hand how it feels to get shot with an air soft gun. One of the neighbor boys has one and he decided to get it out one day without an adult around (don't know why it wasn't locked up) and claims he didn't know it was loaded and aims it right at Mason about three feet away and shoots him in the neck. Mason and the boys came running home and he had a huge welt on his neck and it broke the skin. So, after that I really don't care for those kind of toys. Gun safety will be followed at all times with this one, and it will be locked up so the boys can't just get it when they want.

Mason school pics.

2nd grade

What a good looking kid! I am so proud to have Mason in my life. He works so hard at school and is excelling more and more every day. I know I'm being bias but he really is the best boy a mom could have!

Love you Mason, and go for your dreams!

Beach

When we went to California we spent a morning at Huntington Beach. This is a picture on the end of the pier.





The water was so cold Mady wouldn't barely even stick her toes in.

It was very windy and cold so the swimsuit thing only lasted a minute, then they wanted their jackets on. They thought this was like summertime beach swimming.

Mason loved making a sand castle.

California trip!

BUBBA GUMP SHRIMP CO.

Over fall break we took a family trip to California. A lot of the Taylors (cousins) from Utah ended up coming also. One of the nights we ate at Bubba Gumps.

My Forrest, with his suitcase, box of chocolates, and gigantic tennis shoes.

It was a fun dinner with all the family!

The Happiest Place On Earth!

Here we are at Disneyland in front of the famous Mickey Mouse flower bed. The kids were so excited to go, Mady especially because she wanted to see all the princesses. She could not stop asking where they were and if they all lived in the castle together. It was so fun to see the excitement the kids would get over being there. It's like being a kid again.

Donald Duck Mickey & Minnie

Pluto and the kids

Me and Cruella Deville striking a pose!

The first ride we went on was Star Tours. Mady didn't know what to think and Mason loved it.
Uncle Larry came along on the trip and all of the Taylor's went to Disneyland with us.
Mason even got to make his own double sworded light saber.

Bug's Life 3-D glasses, aren't we stylin'

flying dumbo ride, in Mady words "gumbo Ride"

Monster's inc. car- Noah, Mason and Mady.

My little princess! Mady's most favorite part of the whole day was watching the parade because she got to see all the princesses, Belle and the Beast were one of her favorites as she watched them dance.


Mason's most favorite rides were space mountain that he rode twice and Indiana Jones.


It was especially neat to go around Halloween time because everything was decorated all halloweeny. The Haunted Mansion ride was all decked out like the Nightmare Before Christmas movie, it was really neat!

The picture on right was taken outside of the Haunted Mansion, we are all exhausted because it was the tenth hour that we had been there and Mady was sacked out on my shoulder. But, we didn't let anything stop us, we stayed until they closed at midnight.
These were taken inside of the ride .

Lets just say it was a long 15 hour day at Disneyland, but it was something the kids and us will never forget. It was so worth it, we got to ride every ride that we wanted, some of them even twice. We can't wait to go back!