Snow Day

Not only has winter arrived, but now it LOOKS like winter has arrived! We had our first really good snow storm last night and today without it being bitterly cold outside, and just in time for Christmas! The boys enjoyed the morning sledding down the park's hills and this afternoon we went to Grandma's house to play with cousins in the snow.

All Kayden wanted to do was build a snowman, so we first built a snowman, and it is a beauty I must say. We all pitched in and had a great time rolling and lifting huge snowballs. As you can see, McKay is holding a giant snowball getting prepared for this:

We had one wicked snowball fight. Here Aunt Juli is getting the best of my boys.

McKay trying to get Juli with his giant snowball, only....

...Juli got him instead. She is burying McKay in the snow.

Finally, the boys were able to get Juli a few times. We all had a great time in the snow. Happy Snow Day!

**I loved the snow in December, but I am ready for it to be gone come January. Why is that?

Rivalry Week Continued

It didn't take long before Weston (Jeremy's brother) struck back. Jeremy wheeled the BYU spirit truck onto Weston's lawn on Saturday night and Weston kidnapped our dog on Sunday afternoon while we were at church. He left a ransom note stating that we would not get our dog back until the truck was removed. I thought this was great! A few days of not have to worry about Suki (our dog) running out the front door or through the garage and then us chasing her down the street, no dog toys chewed up and strung around the house, no poop to pick up for a few days, no dog to climb on the table or steal food from Kayden's hand, plus we weren't going to be home much over the next few days so Suki being with Weston was going to be like a vacation for her. I knew she would be happy. The boys, on the other hand, weren't quite as convinced....they were very upset.

Josh was worried. He wanted us to go and pick up Suki the next day.

McKay: "I can't forgive Weston for this!" (We were laughing.)

Jeremy caught a few minutes of video of their reaction on his cell phone:

Weston mentioned in his ransom note that Suki would be converted more and more to a Utah fan the longer we left her at his house. He left pictures on Facebook to show her conversion:

First he dressed her as a Utah fan. She is still cute even in all that red.

Then he shaved a big "U" in her back and head.

Then he colored the "U"s red.

Then her ears were colored red. About this same time it snowed. I guess after Suki went outside in the snow with her red ears, the washable marker began to run leaving bits of red around Weston's house. So he had to give her a bath. In the mean time, Suki had chewed up two of their dog's toys and had also learned to jump over the gate that is guarding the upstairs from the dogs. Perhaps they rethought the great idea of kidnapping our dog. (hehe)

Mid week, our BYU/Utah rivalry pranks made it on the morning news: (I love having a sister-in-law that is a producer at KSL!)



We started feeling guilty come Wednesday that Weston (and mostly Jennise--his wife) has had to put up with our mischievous dog for the last three plus days. Not to mention our boys were very anxious to get their dog back. Other than a few extra crumbs around the table that Suki wasn't home to eat, Jeremy and I were just fine. But it was time. Jeremy made arrangements to have the truck towed away and therefore Suki came home.

When she arrived home she was decked out in red. Way to take one for the team Suki!

The next day we put Suki in rehab and dressed her in BYU blue. She is back to her normal self and glad to be home. I know our four boys are glad to have her home as well. GO COUGARS!

Rivalry Week Is Back

It is time. The big game of BYU vs Utah is this next weekend which means this week is rivalry week. Jeremy's brother became a Ute fan in the "Urban Meyer years" where as he was a BYU fan before. Jeremy started decorating his brother's house during rivalry week a few years ago. For a brief history of what has been done in the past click here (see # 25), here, here and here. Since Jeremy got caught a couple of years ago, we have had to think outside of the box of what to do for rivalry week. So here is this year's rivalry prank:

We got this clunker truck on ksl.com. It doesn't run and I feared for my life by going inside of it. It is just a big chunk of metal that we thought we could have some fun with. We had to tow it from Pleasant Grove to our house. Sadly, our van didn't have anywhere to hook a towing rope, so we used Jeremy's Acura to tow this old clunker through town. We got many double looks, lots of smiles and a few laughs from other drivers we passed. It was quite comical as we were driving through intersections all through town.

Here it is as it as it is about to be transformed.

Everyone got to take part in the transformation. Kayden had a good time painting the truck BYU Blue. He even got paint all over Josh's hair.

McKay was a very enthusiastic painter.

Jaxon dove right in and painted the bed of the truck.

Here is the whole gang painting. They were just about done at this point. I even got in on the painting, but someone had to take the pictures.

Here it is all complete. Jeremy painted all the BYU love.

The hood.

It wouldn't be complete without some love from Max Hall.

To top it off, Jeremy cut a hole in the roof of the truck and made a big BYU flag to post through the hole. I didn't get a picture of it before delivery, but it is visible in the next picture.

Delivery night was last night. Jeremy recruited his other brothers and sister-in-law along with McKay to help him take the BYU spirit truck up to his Ute lovin' brother's house. They parked it on his front lawn and then let all the air out of the tires. GO COUGARS!

Josh Is Six!

How lucky are we to be able to celebrate two birthdays within just a few days?? Today is Joshua's birthday and he has been looking forward to turning six for a long time.

Here is Josh building with Legos today. I mentioned in an earlier post that Josh has began to gain interest in Legos. His Grandma Haacke gave him a Lego set that was a helicopter and fire truck. He enjoyed putting it together today. He started from the moment that he woke up, until he had to go to school, and then picked it right back up where he left off and worked on it until it was finished. It was an all day project and he took pride in his work.

Josh preparing to blow out the candles--Kayden blew them out for him the first time, so we had to relight them so Josh could make a wish and blow them out.

That is one giant present! Josh was nervous about being bonked on the head.

He couldn't get the paper off fast enough, especially when he realized it was the Geotrax train that he had been hoping for.

Josh and Kayden playing with the new train set tonight before bedtime. It is a Christmas train set and Josh is hoping it will go around our Christmas tree this year. I am hoping he will change his mind and have it go around the Christmas tree that will be in his room.

Six Things We Love About Joshua:

1. He is very good to Kayden and his brothers. Kayden isn't the easiest little brother, but Josh has many patience for him. He loves playing with Kayden and always includes him when his friends come over to play. Kayden misses him while he is away at school.
2. He loves school and is doing very well in kindergarten. He had a great first report card and is making new friends at school.
3. Josh loves to build build build. Whether it is Legos or creating a city for his Geotrax trains, he is one great builder. He has quite the mind set.
4. Josh is the best helper--ever! He is always offering to help out. When it is "job day" he is quick to volunteer to do his jobs. He does a great job mopping floors!
5. He loves to decorate for holidays around the house. If he finds there aren't enough decorations for the current holiday, he will make some. (We don't have many Thanksgiving decorations, so he has made about eight paper turkeys to hang around the house.)
6. He loves being active and playing sports. He plays soccer and baseball and can hardly wait until it is his turn to start basketball and football. He also enjoys watching sports. He has been a lot of fun to take to the BYU football and basketball games. He always cheers and is thrilled that there is a Joshua (Quezada) on the football team that shares his name.

We love Josh and feel so blessed to have him in our family. Happy Birthday Josh!

My Baby Is Three

Three years ago today, my last baby boy was born. Hard to believe that he is a fun, but feisty, three year old now. We have been trying to prepare him with the fact that he would soon be three so he would answer correctly the "How old are you question", but he insisted all morning that he was two. Midday he would think about his answer when asked his age before he would say, "Five!" Finally this evening he got it right. My boys is three.

We started birthday celebrations early this morning before the boys went off to school. Amid breakfast smoothies, eggs and toast, we had Kayden's birthday peanut butter bars. Here he is as we were singing "Happy Birthday" to him.

Blowing out the candles...or drinking a smoothie, you pick.

Patiently enduring a "bump on the head" from Joshua.

Opening presents. It was fun to watch the excitement on his face.

Desperately trying to play with Buzz while he was still in the box.

Bracing for another bump on the head--this time from Jaxon.

Hooray! A huge coloring/painting book with 100 stickers (can't wait to see where we find those posted around the house).

After much cutting, untying of wires and removing mass amounts of tape we were finally able to free Buzz from the box so Kayden could enjoy playing with him.

Kayden has grown by leaps and bounds this year. He is my youngest potty trainer. (Whew-- glad that is over!) He thinks he can do whatever his brothers do such as playing the Wii, shooting the basketball, going to school--name it and he thinks he can do it. And he is one smart cookie!

Three Things We Love About Kayden:

1. His facial expressions while he is talking to you. He tells you things as if it was the most important thing in the world. He nods his head up and down and scrunches his lips as he tells you so you may grasp the importance of it all.
2. He loves, loves, loves Curious George, Toy Story, Cars, Superman and anything that has to do with any of those. I find him pretending to be Superman by pretending to quickly change into his Superman clothes then humming the Superman song that he picked up from a DVD we have of old Superman cartoons and then jumping off the couch.
3. Yellow. His favorite color is yellow and loves anything that is yellow. Even today when we asked him who's birthday it was he would reply. "It's Kayden's yellow birthday."
   

This kid is constantly cracking me up by the things that he says and does. (I have to insert here that there are times that I would like to rip my hair out because of him as well). We love Kayden and we are so blessed that he is a part of our family. We have all learned much and enjoy life more because of him. Happy Birthday Kayden!

Music Talents of Jaxon

Jaxon enjoys singing and he isn't afraid to belt it out. In fact, I was awakened by his singing (to Numa Numa) early Saturday morning. Because he enjoys singing, we were excited to see and hear his third grade musical performance. He and his class had been working hard at school learning to play recorders and they learned to sing many songs--even a times table song.

Here is Jaxon waiting for his performance to begin.

Look at that talent! Jaxon did a great job playing his recorder and his recorder even matched his tie!

There is no denying it, Jaxon has got the moves.

His program was great and we all really enjoyed his performance. Both sets of grandparents were able to come and that was a great treat! Now that Jaxon is done with his music class, he LOVES LOVES LOVES his new PE class.

Puzzling

Josh has found that he really enjoys putting puzzles together. Recently he put this 100 piece puzzle together by himself. He was quite proud.

Kayden (on the other hand) has found that he enjoys ruining the puzzles that his brother just finished putting together. Go figure.

Happy Halloween!

We had a great time celebrating Halloween this year. I was able to go to Joshua's and Jaxon's class party at school. I was sad to miss McKay's this year. Too bad I can't be three places at once.

Josh had a great time at his kindergarten Halloween party. Here he is with some of his best buddies doing some fun Halloween activities.

Jaxon was dressed as Albert Einstein this year. He ditched some of his costume to play a hilarious game at his third grade class party. They strapped duct tape to the kids and then the kids rolled around in candy to see who could pick up the most. It was funny to watch them.

Jaxon rolling around in the candy with a couple of other kids in his class. I have to admit, he did quite well. He was a little disappointed when they wouldn't let him keep ALL the candy that was stuck to him.

After school on Friday, we carved pumpkins together as a family. We finally got smart and got out the jigsaw to help in the carving process. I'm glad to say that we didn't break any kitchen knives this year.

Jeremy got really creative this year and shaved the pumpkin skin off his pumpkin's teeth. It made a huge mess (See his shirt, face and hat?) and I was glad when he took his mess outside.

Here is McKay and Jaxon all dressed up just before school. As I said earlier, Jaxon was Albert Einstein and McKay was a professional bull rider. His costume was inflatable and it received many comments at school. All the parents, teachers and kids thought it was quite funny.

Josh was Master Windu for Halloween this year. Here he is using the force to help him get ready for school.

Kayden dressed up as Buzz Lightyear. He was the cutest Buzz I had ever seen. He is in love with Toy Story right now, so dressing up as Buzz is about as good as it could get!

Here is my whole gang dressed up and ready to go out trick-or-treating. Sadly, the weather was horrible for trick-or-treating, but it didn't stop the kids from collecting more than enough candy. We hope you all had a Happy Halloween!