Fredette About It!

We put on our BYU basketball game days t-shirts, Josh had his blue and white hair and we all went to the #9 BYU vs. #4 San Diego State basketball game last night. What a great game it was! Our Cougars won! We were amazed by Jimmer Fredette's performance and the team's defense. We cheered, we yelled, and jumped up and down. Boy it was loud in the Marriott Center!.....and Kayden slept--through the WHOLE game (even though he denies it and says he had a great time at the game last night). Go Cougars!

Christmas 2010

Wow. Christmas came and went faster than I could have imagined. We had a wonderful holiday and enjoyed everything good in life: family, traditions, parties, friends, Christmas cards, presents and of course chocolate.

Here are my handsome boys the Sunday before Christmas. It has become tradition to dress the boys up with matching ties or shirts. This year was ties. Jaxon was thrilled that he received a real tie as opposed to a zip-up or clip-on tie. (Left to right: Kayden (3), Joshua (6), Jaxon (9) and McKay (11)).

On Christmas Eve we went to Grandma White's house for dinner, a program and pajamas. Once the kids were all in their PJs, they did some dancing on Grandma's stage. Josh had all the moves and I snapped his picture while he was in midair jumping off the stage into some pillows.

Here are all of Grandma and Grandpa White's grandchildren. There sure is a lot of blue in this picture with just a little bit of pink.

Grandma read all of the kids a Christmas story. Kayden enjoyed listening while on McKay's lap.

Christmas morning finally arrived! The boys thought it would never get here. We had count down chains (that some how would get two links pulled off a day instead of one--like that would make Christmas come faster), and crossing off of days on the calendar. All of which supposedly helped Christmas get here. They boys stay at the top of the stairs while waiting for Dad to give the go ahead. The boys were up VERY early that morning, but we had forbidden them to get out of bed until 7:00. We had to wake up Kayden--it took him a minute to come around and want to have anything to do with Christmas.

Josh got blue and white BYU hair in his stocking. He wore his hair to the last BYU basketball game and made sure he put on his hair whenever BYU was in need of some extra luck. It worked because BYU won! The baby sitting next to Josh could not keep his eyes off of Josh and his BYU hair.

Kayden has found a love for Superman. Santa put a Superman action figure in his stocking and Kayden was thrilled. He also got a Mater Toons DVD and a Cars scooter (behind him) from Santa. He has decided Christmas is great!

Jaxon begged and begged us for an iPod. His Christmas wish came true and much to his delight he found a blue iPod just for him under the tree. We have been busy loading on songs and we would like to learn how to put on movies. (Any suggestions?)

Kayden enjoyed opening presents and got excited every time it was his turn....

....and when it wasn't his turn, he chose to throw a fit and hide behind the coat rack. That is Kayden for you.

Josh opening his Star Wars AT-AT walker. It has been a favorite toy for all the kids and they all enjoy playing with it and they play with it often. (Jaxon even asked why we gave it to Josh and not to him. I told him, "Josh had it on his Christmas wish list, you didn't." Like the iPod wasn't enough.)

McKay loves everything Lego. This year for Christmas he received two Lego games (in addition to a couple of Lego sets). Both games have been lots of fun to play together as a family.

They day after Christmas we were able to have a Christmas party at Grandma Haacke's house. Aunt Juli and her family came from Texas and Uncle Paul and his family came from Idaho. It was fun to be all together with the cousins. We sure missed Aunt Caprice and her family. Every year at Christmas at Grandma Haacke's house, we act out The Nativity. This year, Josh was Joseph.

Kayden and I were Wise Men. Do we look wise?

Midway through, Kayden decided he had had enough of being a Wise Man and decided he wanted to take a ride on the donkey (his cousin Bryan).

All in all The Nativity was a success and the kids had a great time. Here they are all dressed up. I believe we had two Marys this year (on the front row next to Kayden). Jaxon (middle row left) was a shepherd and did a great job. McKay (very back row left) was also a shepherd and enjoyed being mischievous once the performance was over.

We had a wonderful holiday, including a trip up to Idaho for the New Year. We hope your holidays were just as wonderful as ours. Good-bye 2010. What will 2011 bring us?

Kayden's Pride

Kayden has been cracking me up with some of the conversations that we have. They go something like this:

Me: Kayden, you are such a good boy.
Kayden: Yes I am.

Me: You are so handsome!
Kayden: Yes I am.

Me: Your Lego ship is so cool!
Kayden: Yes it is.

Me: You did a good job on your picture.
Kayden: Yes I did.

Me: You're awesome.
Kayden: Yes I am.

or

Me: See you later alligator!
Kayden: I not a alligator. I Kayden White!

And so it goes. I am grateful for the times that he makes me smile. These times are definitely the times to remember.

Jaxon's Green Belt

It has happened. I knew the day would come that Jaxon and McKay would be the same belt rank in Karate. Jaxon tested for his green belt just before Thanksgiving and put on quite a show. His cousin Bryan was able to go see Jaxon test and Bryan was quite impressed with Jaxon's moves. Jaxon did really well at his test and moved from a purple belt to a green belt.

Who says white men can't jump? Look how high this kid jumped to do a kick. I wouldn't want to be on Jaxon's bad side!

Jaxon doing self-defense moves. So if a bad guy tries to get him, he will be able to get away...then beat him up.

Here is Jaxon at his belt ceremony. His instructor puts his new belt on him for the first time.

Then his old belt is placed on his head. He was one excited proud kid. Way to go Jax!

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!