Most Wonderful Time of the Year 2015

It's the most wonderful time of the year!  I love all the festivities and events that we get to attend during the Christmas season.  It started with Kayden's class reading a play:

 The group of kids that read the play with Kayden.

 Kayden was the narrator.

The next Christmas event was one I look forward to every year: the school sing-in.  This year did not disappoint!

Josh and the 5th grade getting ready to sing.  He is on the second row from the bottom in the middle--he looks thrilled, but really he had a good time singing for all the parents.

 The 5th grade sang Santa Got Stuck in the Chimney Again and Hot Cup of Cocoa.

Kayden sang I'm Getting Nothin' For Christmas and Jingle Bell Rock with the rest of the 2nd grade.  He is on the top row--the only one in green.  He prefers to stand out!

I was able to snap a picture of Kayden as he was leaving the stage.  His class was the last one to sing.

Once school was out, the cousins from Houston came and we spent a lot of time at Grandma's house having fun and celebrating Christmas.

The boys had a good time decorating and eating sugar cookies.  Josh especially paid close attention to detail as he added candy on top of the frosting.

Kayden enjoyed adding sprinkles the the sugar cookie he was decorating.

After much anticipating and waiting Christmas morning finally arrived!  We started a new tradition this year.  I assigned each child a wrapping paper and didn't tell them whose was whose.  There were no gift tags on presents this year.  Everyone was curious to know which presents were theirs!

Coming up the stairs ready to see what Santa had brought and to open presents.  I think they might be excited!  Grandma White made the boys BYU pajamas this year.

Christmas in the great room before all the chaos began.  We had Grandma White make the boys some new play cushions.  They stacked from the floor all the way up to the balcony!

 Opening presents.  I have no pictures of McKay opening presents this year.  He made a comment about how he knows it is a really good present if mom takes a picture of him opening it.  Therefore, I was too paranoid to bring out the camera when he was opening.  I didn't want to give anything away!

 McKay had Jaxon to buy for this year.  He spent a couple of hours putting layer after layer of wrapping paper on Jaxon's gift as a silly joke.  It was pretty funny to watch Jaxon open his present!

 Jeremy was curious to know what was in the big box for him under the tree.  He got a new BBQ smoker for Christmas.  Yum!

Jaxon, being the Spurs fan that he is, was pretty excited to get four tickets to the Spurs versus Jazz game in February.  Uncle Weston helped us secure tickets in box seats!

 Kayden LOVES baseball and loved receiving this BYU baseball jersey.

We had a wonderful Christmas morning!  We received about 18" of snow Christmas Eve night, so it took us a while to dig ourselves out so we could go and visit grandmas and grandpas.

We received the game Pie Face for Christmas and had a good time playing it at Grandma Haacke's house.  It was fun to watch their faces as they anticipated the pie in the face as well as their faces after they had pie on their face!

 

Even I joined in on the fun!

 Once the Idaho cousins came to town, we got to celebrate Christmas again.  The boys had fun opening presents from cousins and from Grandma and Grandpa Haacke.

The day after Christmas Jeremy took the boys skiing.  They had a really good time!

It was Kayden's first time skiing and he attended all day ski school.  Above he is getting a lift to the top of the hill (left).  Jeremy checked in on him during his lunch time.  Kayden had fun!
 

Josh has turned into quite the skier and has gotten better and better each year.  He loves to ski with his dad!

McKay, Marissa and Brady skiing together.

I stayed home from skiing and hung out with these two munchkins--Brady and Kellie's boys (I got to hang out with Kellie too).  Are they not the sweetest!?!  Mason is the newest addition to the White family.  He was born in November.  He and I hit it off right away.  I love to make him smile and hold him while he sleeps.  Taylor is their oldest little boy.  It took me two weeks to get him to talk to me, but once I did we had a good time together!

2015 was a wonderful Christmas season.  We wish you and yours the best and hope you had an equally wonderful holiday season!

#ASaviorIsBorn

This is my beautiful Sunday School class:

18 of the most beautiful girls (and two leaders) that you will ever see.

The Sunday before Christmas we talked about all the gifts the Savior has given to us, especially the ones that we learned about by studying the New Testament throughout the year.  They each filled in the blank on a paper that said, "He was born so I..."  We then decided we needed to give a gift to the Savior.  Each girl wrote a gift to the Savior and put it in an envelope.  Hopefully they will remember the gift they gave throughout the year.  I love these girls!

It's Great to be 8!

During Thanksgiving weekend Kayden was baptized a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  He was baptized by his oldest brother, McKay.  It was an awesome experience for me to watch both my sons walk into the waters of baptism.  Before the baptism, Grandpa Haacke gave a nice talk on baptism.  Josh gave a great talk on the Holy Ghost before Kayden was confirmed.  Kayden asked Aunt Melodie and Aunt Juli to help with the music.  Kayden's dad and Kayden's Grandpa White were Priesthood witnesses of the baptism and Kayden's dad confirmed and gave Kayden the Holy Ghost.  Grandma Haacke and Jaxon both gave prayers.  It was a very nice service.

We took pictures of Kayden at the Mount Timpanogos Temple wearing his brand new suit for his baptism invitation.  He is so stinkin' handsome!
 

 McKay and Kayden all dressed in white and ready to enter the waters of baptism.

 Families are forever.

 Another one of the two of my boys.  I am so proud of them!

 Everyone that came to Kayden's baptism.  We had almost all of our family there and lots of friends came to see Kayden be baptized.

After the baptism we went back to our house and had lunch.  Since it was a football game day we ordered a bunch of pizzas and also had salad and desserts.  It was fun to have everyone together to celebrate Kayden.

We are super proud of Kayden and his choice to be baptized.  It was a very nice day that I hope Kayden will remember for the rest of his life!

Happy Thanksgiving

I woke up Thanksgiving morning to find Kayden placing this gem on my bedside table:

 (I love that the exclamation mark includes a turkey!)

I hope your Thanksgiving was as happy as mine as I truly have many things to be thankful for!

New Cub, Old Cub

Just as Josh is leaving Cub Scouts, Kayden is going in.  It was Josh's last Pack Meeting tonight, and Kayden's first one.

 Kayden introducing himself as a new Cub Scout.

Since this was Josh's last Pack Meeting, he received his Arrow of Light and his Webelos badge.  He also crossed over from Cub Scouts to Boy Scouts.

 Painting Josh's forehead for him receiving the Arrow of Light award.

 Proud parent moment.

 

 Getting his Boy Scout neckerchief tied on.

  

 Crossing from Cub Scouts to Boy Scouts.

All four of these boys have a birthday within a few days of each other.  They were able to cross over to Boy Scouts together.

Now we just have one more boys to get through Cub Scouts.  That's only three more Pinewood Derbies, right?

Josh's 11th Birthday

Josh turned 11 this year and we celebrated hard!  His birthday was on a Sunday this year so Josh asked if we could have Finish Pancakes (crapes) for breakfast.
 

We even stuck candles in his pancake and sang Happy Birthday to him.

After church, Josh was able to open his presents.  He is excited to be 11!

Getting bonked on the head and making wishes.

 

Jaxon was glad to take a turn to bonk without getting busted.

Josh got a yo-yo with a book of tricks and a sensor stick that he had been asking for.

After presents we went to Grandma and Grandpa White's house where both Josh and Kayden got to celebrate their birthday.

Josh had a birthday party on the Saturday before his birthday (after Kayden's party).  He decided to go to the Christa McAuliffe Space Center.  He and his friends were unsure about it all, but they had a great time!

Before heading to the Space Center, Josh and his friends had some pizza and Josh got to open the presents his friends brought to him.

 

Once we were at the Space Center, they had to undergo some training before they were able to go on their mission to space.

Here they are all set to go!

I got to watch them complete some of their mission.  I watched them on a screen that was in a little control room.  It was fun to watch them interact and make decisions.
 

Mission complete!  It was a fun birthday party and a fun weekend celebrating Josh's birthday!

11 Things We Love About Josh:

1. He is always willing to help.  He especially loves to help his dad out in the yard.
2. He works hard in school and loves math.
3. He is a good friend.  He was just nominated by his class for the Hope Squad.  The class had to choose a person in their class that was the most trustworthy and a good friend to all for the Hope Squad.
4. He is super animated.  I love the way his blue eyes sparkle and shine when he is excited or when he is laughing.
5. He loves sports.  This year he played soccer, flag football and is now at the beginning of basketball season.  He especially loves that his dad is his coach.  He loves to watch sports too.  His little head is full of little bits of sports knowledge.
6. He loves to be outside and being busy.  He is always with a friend doing something.
7. He has recently shown a interest in playing the piano.  I have taught him a few things and he has asked to take piano lessons.  He will be starting lessons shortly.
8. He loves to please people.  As much as I love it, it concerns me too.  Sometime he does something he doesn't really want to do just so he can please the person.
9. I love Josh's tender heart.
10. He strives to do what is right and to be a good example to others.  He doesn't like it when others are unkind and he won't to be around the unkind person anymore.
11. His excitement to do things together as a family.  Whether it is going to a movie, a basketball game or other activity, Josh loves to be with his family.

Happy 11th birthday Josh!  We are so thankful for you and for who you are!