Night Out With Josh

For Christmas Josh received a gift of a promise to go out with mom and dad to Legends Grille down at BYU and then to see BYU's trophy room. We finally got around to doing that and had a great time!

Josh waiting for his food at Legends Grille.  It was very tasty!  The grille was all decorated with tons of BYU and sports stuff.  There was a huge TV where you can watch sports games.  They also had a large ticker that would flash all of the current scores.  Josh was in BYU Sports Heaven.

After dinner we went next door to check out BYU's trophies and sports history.  We stopped by Jimmer's display first.  It was cool to see the awards Jimmer earned and his Jersey.

Josh showing off his Heisman pose in front of Ty Detmer's Heisman Trophy.

Josh has a lot of growing to do before he catches up to Shawn Bradley!

And the coolest trophy we saw was the 1984 BYU Football National Champion Trophy.  Wait--who am I kidding?  The whole museum was awesome!  We had a great night out with Josh.

That Darn Cat!

We have been having cat trouble over the last few weeks.  At first, a cat was entering our garage through our outer dog door to get to our dog's food that we store there.  Suki (our dog) discovered the cat and had a fit!  She barked and barked and chased that cat clean off our property.  We thought that Suki had taught the cat a lesson and that it would not be back.  We were wrong.  It kept coming in the garage and scratching at Suki's dog food bag until she could get it open.  So I put the dog food up so the cat could not get it.  Surely the cat won't come back now.  Again, I was wrong.  Since the cat couldn't find food in the garage, it decided to come in through the house dog door to check things out.  No cat is welcome in my house.  Especially this cat.  It was mean!  Suki chased the cat out each time the cat came in.  Suki thought this was great fun!  This dumb cat kept coming in the house uninvited so I thought it was time to take some action.  I tried to get the boys to trap it with a blanket, but they didn't have proper cat trapping abilities so the cat ran back out of the house with Suki on it's tail.  The next time it showed up, I trapped it in the garage.  Jeremy and Jaxon decided to try and teach the cat a lesson.  They sprayed the cat with water and shot at it a few times with Jaxon's air soft guns.  Surely the cat won't come around again.  Wrong.  Again.  We were just about to start getting ready for school a couple of mornings ago when that darn cat waltzed right into the house.  It stood in the hall meowing at us like it belonged there and we didn't.  I had enough.  I trapped the cat in the garage again and called animal control--who referred me to my local police department.  The police told me that they would not come pick up the cat until it was trapped and in a box or cage.  I had neither so I put in a call to my dear friends and neighbors.  My good friend lovingly volunteered her husband to trap the cat and sent him over with a dog carrier.  I thought it was going to be trouble trying to get the cat since in the carrier it was so mean, but my neighbor caught it in no time.  My hero! 

Dumb cat.  I tried to let it know it wasn't welcome at our house.  Once the cat was trapped, Suki took it upon herself to guard the cage to make sure that cat wasn't going anywhere!  She stared that cat down hard!  The police were able to come and take the cat and my cat troubles away.

**Now, I know what probably became of this cat and it does make me sad.  But what was I to do?  It was a mean cat and was trespassing!  I just don't want any blog readers to think I am an animal hater.

I Have A Dream...

Kayden learned all about Martin Luther King at school last week.  He came home with this:

Translation says, "My Dream...to do my friend's chores."  Then the picture is of him doing a chore for his friend.  Make note: Kayden is my new best friend.

December 2013 Wrap-Up

Dropbox was full, couldn't access pictures and time got away from me.  Well, we finally accessed our pictures and I now have found time to wrap up December's events. 

Buddy Link, our Christmas Elf, arrived once again at our house at the beginning of December to have some fun with the boys and observe their behavior in behalf of Santa.  Josh especially loves Buddy Link and wrote him a couple of notes over the weeks Buddy Link was here:

Buddy Link with Josh's note.

A close-up of his note to Buddy Link.  Josh even gave Buddy Link some candy.

The next morning, we found Buddy Link in Josh's Christmas stocking eating his candy.  Josh thought it was awesome!

Another time Buddy Link hid by the presents.  He was stuck in a bow for a couple of days as he did not move.  Finally Josh wrote him this note and left him some more candy:

 Josh really wanted Buddy Link to find a harder hiding place.

The following morning Josh found this note on the kitchen counter:

Josh couldn't find Buddy Link all day!  It was killing him not knowing where he could be!

When we got in the car to go somewhere later in the day, there Buddy Link was all buckled up and ready to go.  He was in the car!  Buddy Link has been a really fun newer Christmas tradition at our house.

The boys' school as an annual Christmas sing-in.  The best way to spread Christmas cheer is singing loud for all to hear!  And that is exactly what the boys did.

This was Kayden's first year participating in the sing-in.  He loved it.  They sang Rudolph The Red Nose Reindeer and Santa Claus is Comin to Town.

This is Jaxon's last Christmas sing-in since he is in sixth grade.  They sang Where Did They Hide My Presents and Snowball Fight.

Josh's class sang The Happiest Christmas Tree and White Christmas (Actually they lip synced White Christmas wearing sunglasses.  I loved it!)

Josh being silly with his buddy Eli at at the end of the sing-in.

Kayden found our Santa costume and proceeded to ride the exercise bike while wearing it:

He was the best in-shape Santa ever!

We also went to two parties with white elephant gift exchanges.  One of them was on Christmas Eve at Grandma White's house.  McKay received one of the best white elephant gifts ever:

They are called Handerpants.  He is modeling them for you above.  They looked just like boys underwear for your hands.

A close up shot.  They are awesome.  He likes to wear them while playing his iPod.  Hehe!

At another party Jeremy and I went to this season, one of the white elephant gifts was this:

House slippers made out of maxi-pads.  I didn't end up with this lovely gift, but I had to take a picture of it because I thought it was classic!

Christmas morning finally came and my boys lovingly woke us up at 7:00 to open presents.

Here are my boys camped out at the bottom of the stairs wearing their new BYU pajamas that Grandma White made for them.  The boys were anxious to get upstairs to see what Santa had brought.

Our Christmas tree 2013.  All the presents were ready and waiting to be opened!

Santa had lined up the stockings on the couch.  It isn't in this picture, but Santa also brought the family an iPad mini.

Jaxon checking out what Santa brought for him in his stocking.  Jaxon received an android phone in his stocking.  The phone part doesn't work, but Jaxon loves playing games on it.

Santa gave Kayden a funny Star Wars shirt.

McKay found a zombie sleeping mask in his stocking.  I think he looks awesome.

Josh was the first to open presents this year.  Above he is opening a lava lamp that he thinks is quite cool!

We had Grandma White help us make a Link (from Nintendo's game Zelda) costume.  Kayden was so excited that he put his costume on right away and didn't take it off the rest of the day!

Kayden dressed as Link.  Pretty cool!

Josh was surprised when he opened his present to find an electric scooter!

McKay received a certificate to take SCUBA diving lessons given that we are heading down to Cozumel later this year.

Josh peeking in the box at a special present....

....it was a BYU football that most of the BYU football team had signed.  Josh was pretty excited!  But best of all is McKay's reaction behind Josh.  I think someone may be jealous?

It was a wonderful Christmas and 2013 was good to us.  We feel very blessed as a family.  Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!  (Even though it is a few weeks late!)

Not Too Big

We have a Christmas tradition of unwrapping and reading a Christmas book each night in December.  The boys all gather around and I read the book to them.  On this night, McKay was sad he was too big to sit on my lap.  I told him he would never be too big to sit on my lap.  So he then decided it was his turn to sit on my lap.  Kayden insisted that he share my lap and below was the results:

I love my boys.

Jaxon decided that he wanted a part of my lap too.  When did my kids get so big?

8th Grade Beasts

McKay loves to play football.  This year was no exception.  He took what he learned last year and improved more than ever!  He even prepared for football season by being in shape.  He was out running a couple of times a week before school and in the early mornings of summer.

McKay makes one handsome football player.

McKay's team.  They called themselves the 8th Grade Beasts.

McKay with his team celebrating a win earlier in the season by grabbing a post game drink and snack.

Post game coach's pep-talk.  McKay's coach (pictured with the hat) is one passionate man and would get fired up.

Another passionate post-game chat after another win.

It was a successful season and McKay's team made it to the tournament.  McKay was sad to see the season end. But we were able to celebrate the success of the season at a dessert banquet.  Above McKay is lined up with his team.  The coach highlighted each player and gave each player a small gift.

McKay receiving his gift from Coach.

A few weeks after the regular season ended, the team went down to Mesquite, Nevada to play in a weekend tournament.  Just McKay and I went down.  We thought we would enjoy some warmer weather (it being the end of November), but instead it rained the whole weekend and we froze!  McKay is bundled in a blanket above waiting for the tournament weigh-ins.

It was so chilly, that McKay did some dancing during warm-ups to stay warm.  He has got some moves! 

Hanging out with some of his team buddies at Pizza Hut for lunch.  It was fun to watch him interact with his friends.  And it was fun to see him relax and enjoy himself so much.

A pre-game breakfast at McDonald's.  We learned through Google that McDonald's was one of Mesquite's top 10 restaurants.  That shows you the quality of Mesquite, Nevada.

Once the tournament was over, McKay's team gathered for one last post-game pep talk.  Coach brought up each player and talked about their good qualities and all that each player added to the team.  He talked about how this was only McKay's second year playing football and how hard he worked.  McKay played on the offensive line this year and also played corner for the last part of the season and for all of the Mesquite tournament.

One last team huddle.  McKay really was sad to see it all end.  He loves football season and being with his team.

Team tournament photo.  McKay was so appreciative and thanked me many times for taking him to the tournament.  Despite the weather and losing games in the tournament, it was a good weekend.