Don't you love it when your kids teach you a great lesson?! Well, I always get my neighbor gifts but I usually wait until the last minute and this year is no different. We have already been lucky enough to have had visits from some of our neighbors. Last night as Landon said his prayer he prayed that people would keep coming and giving him stuff and that he would be the one to get to the door to get it. I just sat there and realized that it had not crossed his mind to be the one to deliver, do service, or help out some of our neighbors, friends or even strangers. The last couple years we have done a secret Santa family and delivered Christmas Eve but I am learning that the service needs to start earlier. So, we ran out to the store to start making some goodies to deliver to people. I want to make sure that he enjoys being the deliverer as much or more as the receiver especially during the holiday season.

Every year we do a little family Christmas dinner and have all the kids do the Nativity. They have fun doing it and it is always great to watch.

The wise men, Bodin, Landon and Van.

I was very proud of them for not sword fighting with there canes during the show.
Almost all the grand kids, McKade is MIA. Tanner even made a great baby Jesus.

The kids were rewarded with some sugar cookie making. Great night!

I love days like this (to bad it was over a week ago)!

We played outside almost the whole day, jumping, splashing, running, sliding, and then in for hot chocolate!! Only to turn around and do it all over again and again. Things could not have got any better for the boys.

A trip to the deer farm. I remember going to the deer farm when I was much younger so I decided the boys needed to go. They liked it but were not sure what to think about the deer attacking them for the food. They really liked Santa's Reindeer and we watched them for a while.

Van would just throw the food and hope they didn't get his toes.
Landon would get mad everytime they left him which was as soon as he ran out of food.

They had a fun little tractor out front that Van had to play on.

Taking a ride in the big mans sleigh!

Friday morning we got up and all Van could say was go back see trains. So back to the Train Depot we went.

He watched all the people board this train and waited for it to go. When they went they blew the horn for him and waved he LOVED it. Then went it all went by he cried and ran and was very upset that the train was leaving without him.
I was terrified that he was going to run onto the tracks. He got as close as you possible could without going over the chains.

I waited until the last minute (August) to get our tickets to the Polar Express. As a result we could only get a week day ticket so Jason worked a 1/2 day on Thursday, we had the car packed and were waiting in it when he got home. Let's say it was a quick ride but we made it with 30 minutes to spare! I took them to the room to get there jammies on and Jason headed over to pick up our train tickets.

Van was in so EXCITED! He just stared at all the trains.

They have the tickets and were ready to board.

Van couldn't give his ticket to the guy fast enough.
They loved everything about it...the hot chocolate, cookies, singing, books, but most of all

the visit from SANTA!

They BELIEVE!

I have been such a slacker we have been up to a lot but I will post about those things later. Today I thought I would give you a little laugh.

I went into the bathroom to check on Van and he laughs, points and say's

"Pick a Piece"! What a stink.

--Van--

Van had is 2nd Dentist visit. I never thought that things could ever be worse than his 1st visit but once again Van proved me wrong. At the first visit they put off doing any x-rays, cleanings, or fluoride treatments and put in the chart that this one needs extra time for his visit. The office is Great I love them and I am glad they let us keep coming. They let Van have his own room in the very back of the office. They put in Nemo for him, got him a blanket and laid the chair back. They let Landon get up and show Van how fun it was to hang out and watch the movie, well I could not even pry him off of me. The dentist decided it would be better off doing the laying on my lap with his feet tucked behind me and I help his arms down the best I could. The poor dentist I felt really bad, I tried to help him as Van sunk his teeth down on his finger. All he managed to get done was a really, really fast fluoride treatment (hopefully they just scratch the x-rays for many years). As he backed away from the evil child he laughed and said "well he has some really sharp teeth in there". I must have had one of my looks and he followed it by "that was the closest I have ever been to being bit". Thanks for trying to make me feel better but I did witness the whole thing up close. He is an awesome Pediatric Dentist and he is brave enough to have Van come back in three months. Great, three months hopefully by then we have insurance but more important maybe Van will stop saying....

"Dentist Scary, I scream at him, I bite him,

dentist SCARY!"

Landon very happily stayed right where he was cuddled in the blanket and enjoyed Van's visit, he felt like a king. He did give Van a dirty look when his screaming was bothering him but then he figured he could just stick his fingers in his ears and keep watching the movie. Anyone want to volunteer to take Van next time. It is a once in a life time experience.

Sisters Are GRRREAT!

We feel the need to tell Whitney THANK YOU!! She helped out at the last minute, well actually she was VERY willing to help us just so she could laugh at us as we did the dreadful talking in church today. Turns out that she may have rather been up giving a short talk than hanging out down with the boys! It went like this....
I finished my talk and sat down and Whitney makes sure Van knows where he is going and then sends him on up to see me. As I watched him so happily walk down the isle to join me I figured he was just being his normal "not wanting to leave me self". He comes up and sits next to me then see's the piano and of course makes a dive for it. I grab him and sit him on my lap, that is when I notice why Whitney sent him my way. Oh yes, you guessed it! The boy has not peed his pants in months but for some reason this morning he felt the need to not use the bathroom. As I walked out to see Whitney she couldn't believe I did not have any extra cloths for him. I have not carried extra cloths in MONTHS! Whitney saved me again as she drove to my house and got Van some new dry cloths. How horrible would it have been if I went and interupted Jason't talk to get my car keys out of his pocket. Van you always seem to pick the perfect time to pull one your stunts. Thanks Whitney for dealing with my pee boy.

365 days later....

One Year. I think it sounds more accurate when said as 365 days. One year sounds so quick and I don't thinks I would classify this year as a quick one. Landon and I had a great talk about today, I am pretty sure a few tears came which does not happen much in this house. He told me how much fun he had playing with Lorin. "He would always sit and play batman toys with me!" He also told me how "this one time Grandpa was up on the latter and I wanted to go up and help but I was a little scared so he took my hand and helped me go up." I tried to get more from Landon like when this was, or what they were doing? He looked at me like I was crazy and replied "going up the GREEN ladder". He told me how Lorin also let him eat his candy, which is why we decided to celebrate Lorin's heaven day by having a blue skittle party. Sounds weird but they were some of Lorin's favorite candy's and the boys loved it! Landon was totally into picking all the blue ones out and did not eat a single one until he was done. Van on the other hand totally different story, we actually found it disgusting at the thought of him touching them so he got his own bowl to happily devour! I love the fact that Landon has these memories and will be able to share them with Van and all the other littles in the family. I love that we are able to have the church in our lives and the knowledge that it gives us. The opportunity we have to be eternal families and to be together again. I love that Lorin lived a great life, set goals and accomplished them. I hope that my boys will do the same and am grateful they have another great example to follow. Thanks Lorin!!
Here is the result of our skittle party....
Five giant bags of skittles....

Only filled three very small containers so......
we found even smaller packaging!

Cabin

Last week to jumped at the chance to get away. We were able to go to the cabin and celebrate Jason's birthday while we were there. Happy Birthday! We enjoyed the cold weather, which I was not prepared for. The rain was nice and relaxing and we saw a good amount of wildlife. It was another great cabin trip!!

Friday morning when we got we saw four wild piggy's right out back. It was a good way to start the morning and the boys couldn't be more excited to go out "hunting".

They finished up breakfast and headed out with there little guns in tow. To my surprise we saw three deer. I thought they would bolt as soon as we saw them but they didn't and we watched them for a good ten minutes. The boys took a lot of shots at them and Landon is pretty sure he got one. It was pretty funny especially since Jason kept telling them to be quiet. Right our kids be quiet.
I love pictures where they actually look innocent!
Here is one of Landon's many plans. It drove us crazy he would stop draw a plan and explain it to us. I would say that at least 90% of them were "I am going to be in front and walk like this, make sure you all stay behind me".

As we were getting ready to leave the Turkeys came in. I had no idea how many of them flocked together, they were everywhere! We counted 18 of them.

Thanks Grandma and Grandpa for letting us have our cabin trips, we love them!

CRASH

CRASH!!

That would be what Van does best. I feel bad for the poor kid he is always covered in bumps and bruises. We went to the Potato Garden and they had this really great chair, that I would never buy. It was big and cozy and spun really fast. Landon gave Van a ride and well, lets just say he flew off......

these are about a half hour after the accident. We even got ice on it

within minutes and it still got this big.
This is two days later you can kind of see the bruising
but of course it did look worse in person.

***If you are ever with Van and he has a fall he may ask you for some

"water rocks".

It took me a few minutes but I did finally get it, he needed some ice!

Soccer

Congratulations Landon on a fabulous soccer season! You really got the hang of this game. You made goals every game and even kicked it to your team mates. You were a great team player and had a lot of fun with all your soccer friends. You were so excited to bring home your trophy and show it to every one! Great Job!!

Better late than never!

I have put of this post for almost a month but I have to admit my error (I would rather do that then have the kids look back and think I turned into my mom not celebrating the this fun holiday!). I am so mad at myself, I deleted all my Halloween pictures. Yes, all of them -- the pumpkin carving party, the carving at our house, the trick or treating, the trunk or treating-- pretty much the whole week of Halloween!! LeAnn emailed me a couple that she had, not my favorite picture of Van and you really can't see his costume but he was a Lion. He loved it! He would run from house to house roar at the people and then collect his candy. If they did not give it fast enough he would help himself.

Of course Landon loved it! He was a red power ranger. I think one of his favorite parts of Halloween was the Power Ranger DVD that came with his costume, it teaches how to do all the awesome fighting moves. Just what I needed but at least he is not sitting in front the TV to watch this movie. Van and I started out with them but him and Jason went forever! They went all over the neighborhood with some of our neighbors and collected way to much candy! Any way they were the best Red Power Ranger and Lion out there!

Oh The Places We Go! We have been busy this week and it has been fun. Tuesday my mom took the boys and I to the Phoenix Zoo. The weather was great and the boys had fun. Of course they had to fight over every telescope--to be expected. I was grateful that Landon did not figure out until the last one that he needed to put money in it to make it work. They loved the elephants, lions, tigers, little monkeys, snakes, frogs, giraffes, but I think the favorite of the day was the Orangutans. There was a little one that was playing peek a boo with a sheet, it was so cute.

This picture is for Van he has been looking at it on my camera for two days.
Listen close you might be able to hear him yelling

Tiger ROAAAR if your in a five mile radious of us!
Van roared his lungs out at that lion! He thought he could wake him but no luck.

Everyone needs a picture with a blue frog, right?!

Schnepf Farms, here we are!!

First stop of course.......the Choo Choo Train!!

(Van would not have it any other way)

Landon got to ride right behind us with his cousin Delilah and Uncle Jared

Landon~Olivia (the birthday girl)~Van~Delilah

They all love the carousel

Landon can't be normal in a pic, must be a boy thing?!

We rode all the rides at least twice some three times and to my surprise I would say they had the most fun running wild through the corn maze! I took this pic and thought for sure something had spilt on my camera but now I am pretty sure that is dirt flying through the air! What do ya think? I never cleaned the lens and the next day it was fine.

A little out of order but this is us entering the maze--aka the huge cloud of dust.

It was fun and I would totally go again. Thanks Sam for the invite we had a blast!

Happy Third Birthday Olivia!