My Cute Birthday Boy...

I know, I know, I haven't posted Christmas yet, and I'm planning on it soon...how life goes so fast I do not know. I can't believe it is the middle of January. The month that I dislike the most has slipped by very uneventfully and not really too cold or miserable. But the purpose of this post is to celebrate my cute little six year old's birthday. He is getting so big and I must say he has been so cute through all of the holiday seasons and celebrations. His excitement and joy over all of these things has been very cute to watch. When he woke up he had to get up extra early(if you look in the windows you can still see it is dark!) because he had to go to school. How depressing is that. I took the day off, but still had to get up at 6:20 to put in Monkey bread (birthday boy's request!) and I cooked the rest of the day!

This is a pre-chaos picture of the the presents. We did not do a very good job disguising the bike that he was getting. In the next picture he said that this was his big boy, six year old smile. He looks a little goofy, but it is cute none the less!

He was so excited to open presents and he did them very quick. We did not have to spend too much time opening. Christmas and birthday definitely went very quick. He had stuff opened in about five minutes.

He got so many nice things for Christmas, it is hard to figure out what to get them so soon after...we didn't even really know what he wanted. I don't think he did either. We got him a bike which we hope will be the last for the next little while because we have already gone through three....He had a tiny little kids one, he had a Wal-mart cheapo that would peddle very easily and he loved Austin's old bike because it did peddle...so that is what we were looking for when we got this one. He is a touch little, but still did just fine when we went out to ride it. It is a nicer one that we hope will finally last for our little biker!

It is against my better judgement to purchase army stuff for our little boy, but he has been so into it lately that we got him some. He is opening an army tank and some dudes that go with it.

He is saying I'm sure right now...cool! Awesome! (those must be six year old words they learn at school!)

This is the chaos that was left after five minutes...I didn't even get that many pictures because he opened them so fast.

He wouldn't pose for a loot picture so this is as close as I got. It was kind of a boring birthday for him I think because we just didn't know what to get him....but once he got into it, I think he liked it. He got a CD player/stereo, some clothes, army toys with a tank, connect 4, magnext building set and his bike...from us! Still probably too much, but we did try to cut back. We forgot about one present we had left from Christmas so he got a present later in the day that we didn't give him for Christmas too!

This was the cake I made. Mom gave me the idea to be a little lazier this year and just buy some toys for cake-toppers. So he had another star wars cake. It is definitely not one of my best cakes, but he liked it. He picked out all of the different candles that is why there is such a modge podge...

We had everyone over who was close by for dinner and presents that night....that is why I said I felt like I cooked all day long. Peyton choose pork chops and mashed potatoes and corn for his birthday dinner. Of course I tried to add a few extras...but it was a nice dinner.

Of course Peyton did not eat much because he was too excited about his presents. He kept sneaking away from the table to open them. A couple he actualy broke into and saw what was in them, but I think he had fun. Kaysha is trying to help, but I don't think he wanted any of it.

Peyton has lately had a fascination with the Blue Angels and jets and we even pulled up some on you tube for him to look at and watch. They are coming this summer to Idaho Falls so he has been very excited about them. His granny got him a blue angel pilot suit and helmet and he felt so big. It was pretty cute to watch how excited he was. She also got him a Blue Angel jet, that didn't come in the mail as quickly as she wanted it to. He got that yesterday and we've already made a commercial with it...My old student Willy and one of Peyton's buddies brought him a "Defend Freedom" pin from the military and I noticed that he had pinned it onto his suit...I may have to get used to the idea of a military man in our house...hopefully it is a phase..??

Aunt Pam and Uncle Ryan got him some more army clothes and tools (grenades, knife etc...) and some camo pants that supposedly he can wear to school (argh...there is another thing I said I would never do....but they were pretty cute I guess for a little boy! and he loved them). Aunt Angie and Uncle Matt and the kids got him a Nerf gun and some walkie-talkies. He is very excited about the nerf gun after playing with 20 of them at Angies...
We went to blow out candles and even that happened fast because I still didn't get a very good picture of him....he made a wish that he later told me was to be a Blue Angel pilot...hmmmm!???

This last picture is the gift that pop gave him...it is a remote control bull-dozer that I believe would scrap the snow off of our walks...we had to charge the batteries for that puppy all night, but he looks pretty happy with his gift...It was totally awesome I believe was how he put it!

What a cute little dude. He is growing up and it is so fun to watch how excited he gets for little things...It was a joy to have this day with him. He shares his birthday with his Grandma Scott who just passed away and I know we were all thinking about her on this special day too. We were lucky to have Grandpa Scott come to the party that night...I know it meant a lot to all of us.

I suppose I should...

I suppose I should post pictures of my cute little boy and various other Christmas pictures, however I decided to be a little selfish and post some of my favorite gifts first...I have a lot of fun and cute pictures from Christmas, but I'm going to show you my favorites... The first pictures shows you my grand total of books that I was able to purchase from all of my gift cards that I receive to Barnes and Noble. I received a 25$, 50$ and 100$ gift certificate...or a total of 175$ dollars. In 25 minutes I had this stack of books plus one more and went over my limit. This year I tried to stay within my limit so I put back one book and my grand total was 174.26...I had 24 cents left over...pretty good and I got a nice stack of books. I only got two read over Christmas...(a few more others of my own that I didn't buy!) I had a nice time reading...so all of you who think I don't like getting this Christmas...you are very wrong! I hope to one day be able to get all of the books that I want! Maybe someday! :-)

This is another of my favorite gifts. This is the first time Andy picked out a whole outfit for me and I must say he did a nice job. Pants, shirt, sweater, and necklace. I was pretty impressed and it all fit! He did a pretty good job if I do say so myself! Cute, cute, cute!

My last present was actually a birthday present, but same thing...right...My wonderful parents got me a kitchenaid and let's just say I've been wanting one of those for years...They were so nice to get it for and to top it off...it is orange! I made my first batch of cookies and it is pretty awesome! I'm already saving for the pasta maker attachment and vegetable attachment!

Thanks to everyone for all of the nice presents I got...that is not all I got, but these were a few of my favorite things...:-)

I'll post more pictures of Christmas soon!

Christmas Eve Fever

We had someone who was very, very sick on Christmas Eve. He had what I like to call Christmas Eve fever. I remember as a child how long Christmas Eve was and how much I wanted to open everything. It was a time of snooping, peeking, getting frustrated and mad, and excited all in one. Peyton had Christmas Eve Fever really badly this year. As you can see in the picture below...he helped Andy open his birthday presents and lets just say in 2 minutes flat he had basically shredded the paper and destroyed our living and was ready for more. It didn't help that he got to open presents, it just ignited the flame. We had actually wrapped presents for Peyton and put them under the tree. However, we ended up actually putting them back into the orange bedroom that has a lock on it. We showed him this present that he got to open but he had to wait until bedtime. We also told him it was a toy so he wouldn't be really disappointed. Well the fever was too much and we knew he couldn't help himself...so we threw it up onto our high ledge that he cannot reach. After I did that, I decided that would be a nice place to display all of his presents next year! The torture just might be enough he would figure out how to pile and stack chairs to get to them! This present stayed there until evening. We then went to my mom's where I found Peyton searching desparately around the tree for any present with his name on it. He then encouraged some followersTo join him...Let's just say that Pam and Pop got them out of there. However, I do believe he peeked into one present! A child after my own heart...The problem is that I know all of the tricks. You can't hide stuff, you just have to lock it away. However, when he gets old enough to pick locks like I can, we might be in trouble! I think we have one more year of him not doing that! Finally he got to open a present for him on Christmas Eve. We had survived the day with minor side effects from the fever. The only way I know how to pacify it is to open a present and go to bed and wake-up Christmas morning. Then after shredding every present and being a little bit sad that there aren't any more, the fever suddenly leaves!

However, we were able to get it to lower just a little bit by the Christmas Eve present he opened! Isn't he cute in his new PJ's! Yes I had to sew the sides so they would stay up! :-)
P.S. -Another symptom is getting caught sneaking into Christmas goodies before lunch and dinner and leaving evidence on your face. This was the Muddy Buddies I made that someone was caught sneaking into that day!

This could provide a little diversion from the real things they want to sneak into!

This Christmas was one of the best ever because Peyton experienced and illustrated all of the joy that is present when a young child believes. I know I can never get that back, but I got to live through it vicariously and it was wonderful...Oh, to be young again!

Christmas Recital

Peyton had his first clogging recital on Saturday. We were a little worried because he had been sick all week. But after a few quick rehearsals at home and working on him not watching the other dancers, he did amazing. Andy and I were amazed at what a little performer he was. He was charming and cute and really quite the stage man. No nerves and really performed well. It was so fun to watch his hard work pay off. This is one of his little friends who he dances with. This is one of my students who Peyton got to know during the play. She also danced at Patty's recital and was amazing. She is a very talented girl and she is very sweet to Peyton...This is Peyton's little class. They are from Hamer, Terreton and Dubois. The other little boy is Jenny William's little boy and it was fun to go back to Patty's and watch them all dance.

After the recital they did a little present exchange. It was really cute because Patty read a left/right story and let's just say it was a little chaotic. Peyton even pegged someone in the head when he was passing and they weren't very happy, but I don't think he meant to, it was just hard to keep up especially with the little ones.


I was very proud of Peyton. He ended up getting a blanket and he asked if he could switch his present. I whispered in his ear to be big and he was fine. I saw a few of the kids crying probably because their present wasn't what they wanted it to be! It was a really fun night and we were very proud of our little toe tapper!

Christmas Party Before Thanksgiving...??

So we had a nice Christmas party before Thanksgiving. I guess I should explain why there is a Christmas party before Thanksgiving. My family always has a Christmas party that one of us is in charge of. This year it was Holly. She will not be here for the holidays, but it was her year to be in charge. She was up for Thanksgiving week and wanted to have her Christmas party. So we all meet at my house. Her theme for the party was to do some old-fashioned things we did when we were kids so that our kids could do it. It was fun. Dad and Jayson are relaxing while everyone tells a Christmas memory. I again heard some of my favorite stories about Christmas. However I'm still waiting for Austin's Christmas memory.

Peyton is working on something that we all did in Mrs. Murdock's class. You take crepe paper and wrap it around your pencil, then did it in glue and make your picture. We ended up making candy canes for a our picture.

This is where Holly is giving everyone a candy plate and getting a little emotional because she won't be here to watch us make the candy. (because we all know she didn't help! :-)

We also did the traditional left/right present exchange. Jay did the honors be reading and I think Dad just kept what he wanted and passed all the rest on.

This is the silence of the lambs snowflake that Peyton made. I thought he did pretty good for his first snowflake.

Pam, Ryan and Dad all made quite a nice long paper chain that ended up in Kyla's room. It turned out very cute.

Carson seranaded us with some Christmas carols...that his dad did not really appreciate. But it was pretty cute!

Holly and Granny are getting Adam going with the crepe paper candy canes.

Working hard with that glue stick!

Angie was put over the scissor patrol because we had a lot of under-age scissor users and Carson kept trying to steal them.

The chain gang!

Peyton's final candy cane picture...It turned out just like I remembered them when we were kids. Thanks for bringing back the memories Holly and Mom! The food was good too! We loved the cheeseball...looking forward to more!

Happy Halloween Weekend

So our Halloween started our really busy. I volunteered to be one of the room moms and was lucky enough to plan and attend Peyton's Halloween party at school. We had a lot of fun. We did pictures in our costumes and a whole class picture. Then each kid lined up for a picture by themselves. We printed out the picture for them to take home. This was the year of the vampire for Peyton. A whole bunch of boys decided they wanted to be a vampire. But Peyton just wanted to be one. Not sure where he got the idea from.

We did a lot of fun activities at his party. We had a fun treasure hunt that led us all over the school. Then did a monster mash musical game. We did a Halloween cup toss. Attempted to decorated a paper plate pumpkin, and also decorated cupcakes. I don't know how kindergarten teachers do it...It required a lot of energy. All in all pretty good for my first party! I even told them a few fun Halloween lies...like the witch's finger breadsticks that I cut off of a witch and the mean pirate who hid their treasure. They believed everything I said...right??? ha!

Peyton liked the decorating the pumpkin cupcake. Then he wanted to wander around and see what everyone else was doing. As you can see we have a lot of busy little kindergarteners.

Our afternoon got even busier because I volunteered to help decorate for the Hamer carnival. We went home, cleaned up a cute little vampire, and then headed back to the school. The carnival was great and it looked very nice too!

The first thing that Peyton wanted to was the bungee run. This is for a little bit bigger kids, but Peyton loved it. You basically run and then it jerks you back...doesn't sound really fun.

Peyton did the pop toss and the dime toss. Andy and I got into the dime toss because were trying to win the book "The Mouse and the Motorcycle". After I tried and tried and won other things, Andy finally after a few tries, actually won the book. I then tried a Koosh toss because I could win these bugs that would crawl up and down the wall which they didn't after I won them...but we had fun anyway. We had two other places we had to be that night so we hurried through as much as we could

Peyton got a carmel apple and bit off all of the caramel. Then he did the sucker pull and won a prize.

We decided to forgo the vampire costume for the night because we had a wedding to attend and also went to the Halloween concert at BYU-Idaho. The theme for the concert was a Super-hero theme and Peyton loved it. We had a good time. Then we went home.

The busy Friday was over and Halloween came. We spent the morning getting our chores done and taking funny pictures of us in scary teeth. And yes we also look a little scary but we were having fun.

Then we got our little vampire ready again to go trick or treating. He was very excited to go especially after a few trick or treaters came to our door. He was very cute and wanted to put all of the candy in their baskets. Andy then took him out to get his loot. I stayed home and handed out candy and read a book...how nice!

Andy said Peyton was very brave and went by himself up to all of the houses. He only got scared out one house that decorates with a lot of spooky things. But he still liked it and had a good time.
As you can see he looked pretty spooky! He didn't like wearing the makeup but I thought he was a pretty cute little vampire.

This will show the fruits of his labors Halloween night. He got a pretty good haul.

And he ate candy until he was sick...ha! Actually he is pretty good and only has a few at a time. He was so excited though and it was very cute. What a fun weekend we had.

Today (Sunday) we just kind of had a nice day at home. I made Pumpkin Cinnamon rolls and we stayed in our PJs all day. It was a nice weekend! Busy, but fun and nice!