Just the 6 of us

In 14 years since Jay and I have been together we have NEVER spent a Christmas with just our little family. As much as we love being with all of the extended family it was time for us to keep it small and intimate. Everything leading up to this day was so memorable for me. It was the first year we actually had time to take the kids shopping so that they could shop for one another. To see them roam the mall in search for the perfect gift for their brothers or sister was so sweet! Then watching them wrap their gifts for each other, then give them to each other was such a blessing to Jay and I. It truly is better to give than to receive and this year our kids experienced that. It also made Jay and I look at each other and say "we need to do this more often". And we will. Christmas Eve day went to lunch at our favorite Mexican restaurant, Costa Vida, then came home and watched the Nativity Story together...the kids LOVED this and want to "watch it together every year" (Kenna). Then we had dinner together, cleaned up and headed to church for a reflective Christmas Eve service. We then headed back home to open our gifts!!! It was such a fun day! Christmas morning we opened our stockings and had breakfast together. Then we hopped in the car and drove to Yakima to spend a few days with my family. We had a great time....unfortunately, I didn't take any pictures...which is weird, I know.

On December first we started reading a story for advent called Jothem's Journey. It is a story about a little boy that gets separated from his family and while he searches for them he encounters the people in the Christmas story and comes to learn about the Messiah. GREAT story! Our kids looked forward to reading this together each night...actually I looked forward to it! We would light the candle on the Advent wreath and cozy up by each other and daddy or I would read our chapter for the night...it was so relaxing! Then we would have wonderful conversations about the story and how to apply the lessons to our lives. It felt like Christmas should....to be focused on Jesus, his coming, his death, and his promise that he will again one day return as our king! What a meaningful month it was for us. I'm already looking forward to next year and I cant say that it has been that way for me....for a while.

Here are some pics from our time together!~

Tyson and all of his pearly whites! My little cheese ball!

Huddy....could those eyes be anymore BeaUtiful??? And I'm diggin the feaux hawk!

Our sweetie heart! Cant believe how old she looks in the picture. =(

Poor Jaxon had a canker sore the size of a quarter inside his top lip....made it hard to smile so I got a "stop making me try to smile, mom" look. =)

Our Christmas Eve Dinner! Yummy!

The Ham that we bough the day before Christmas Eve....not easy to find a ham that late in the month!
Kenna watching the end of the Nativity Story. She was all teary eyed! It was so sweet.

Jay & the cuties!

Mama and her little chicks!

Poor Jaxon just couldn't smile any more...so here are the other 3 hammin' it up!

Christmas Eve reading our Advent story. Ty seems to be paying really close attention. =)

Advent Wreath

Ty & Hudson

Daddy just opened up the present the kids got him...a NEW wallet!

Kenna got some slippers from Jax! She "was totally wanting some just like these!"

Hud & Ty opening up their storm trooper helmets!

"now we're just wike wheel (real) star wars guys, Huddy!" Tyson age 3 1/2

Here is Jax opening up his "big" gift from Jay & I. It was a little box with a BSU Fiesta Bowl T-shirt in it and a ticket to the Fiesta Bowl!!!! But when he ripped the package open the ticket fell on the floor and he didn't even notice...so while we snickered at his excitement over the t-shirt, Kenna pointed out the ticket on the floor. This is the picture of him figuring out that he gets to go with us to the FIESTA BOWL!!!!!!!! GO BSU!

He knew that Jay and were going but we didn't tell him he was going to get to go. NOT ONCE did he ask if he could go so it made giving him the gift even more exciting! When we asked him if he thought we were going to take him he said "no, I thought you would have told me by now". He was AS excited as we have EVER seen Jax!

Looking forward to Jan 4th! Go Broncos....PLEEEEEAAASE make it worth the money we spent!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!!!!

One of our FAVORITE Christmas traditions

If you live in Boise there's no doubt you know of this place. Every year this guy lights his house up for all of Boise to see and every year we drive up Quail hill, park, walk a ways in the snow and marvel at all of the lights...all of his hard work! The kids love it, I love it...even Jay loves it! =) This year we went the night before Christmas Eve and it took us 30 minutes to get up the hill to the house. It was bumper to bumper traffic! But well worth the wait!

Apparently 10 year old boys don't wear pants anymore no matter what the temp!

This year the neighbor next door went all out! I love it! DITTO!

Welcome back???

Facebook has taken over blogging....its sad, I know. This is my attempt at coming back to the bloggers world...we'll see how it goes. Im going to attempt blogging in December...if it doesnt work then I will have to say goodbye to this past time...one that I enjoyed for so long. =) Im just not sure I can keep up with both....plus its a lot of work if no one looks at it! =0)

4th of July!

As you know....I love the 4th of July. It is one of those days that I look forward to all year long. But Ive been thinking a lot about why I love it so much (maybe because of the sermon we had this week) and these are some of my thoughts.

Of course there are the surfacey things that are fun....swimming, basketball, BBQ, potato sack races, dancing and the fireworks...but who we do all of these things with is really why it is fun. I love that we serve a God who has created us to "enjoy" the things He has given us but especially the relationships that He has allowed us to have. What a blessing! But as much as I do enjoy the preparations, the people and falling into bed exhausted there is more to it for me. It is seeing the things that God has given us, be used in a way to encourage others. That might sound strange but this is what I mean by that....when I look at this picture, at the families that are represented here, I see people who love the Lord, people who have loved us, but I also see people who have been through a lot. They have all had pain, struggles, heart aches, and to see them all come together to have fun & enjoy this life God has given us is really special to me. I don't want them to forget their struggles because God truly does grow us through hard times, but to see them be able to enjoy the happiness of life too, is so great! It makes me think about Heaven...how in the presence of Jesus we will have real joy, perfect relationships and fun! The 4th of July is a little piece of Heaven on earth for me and I really do thank the Lord for it. =)

You might be saying "the 4th of July is a holiday to celebrate our country" and that is true! And I so appreciate that the Lord allowed for me and for my children to be born into a country with so many freedoms, but it too makes me long for Heaven...where my one purpose, to worship Jesus, will not be clouded by "American" things. That even as "nice" as being an American is, being in Heaven with Jesus will be.....indescribable! There is always tension on this earth....I am SO thankful to be and American and yet I look forward to being taken from this place that is not my home for eternity. And I am also thankful, like I mentioned up above, for the joy we are able to experience here on earth because they too point my affections heavenward.

Bet you didn't think those were the reasons I love the 4th of July! =)

God's mercy on our little girl.

I know its been a while since this happened but I really wanted to document this. Although it was such a scary and horrible thing that happened we have all come to know the Lord better because of it. To experience His mercy and His grace through an accident like this was....well, I don't even have the words to describe it.

On June 15th, 2009 Kenna had an accident on the diving board that took us to the ER immediately. After being looked at she was moved to the downtown St. Lukes for surgery. She had torn her "girl parts" open and we were unsure of the damage until after the surgery. God was so gracious to give us all female nurses and doctors...all whom were amazing with Kenna. Kenna's anesthesiologist just so happened to be a friend of ours from football...and when I say just so happened I MEAN God ordained it to be that way. It was so comforting to see a familiar face...the face of a friend who would be watching out for Kenna through her surgery. We also found out from the surgeon that Kenna was about a cm away from having a very painful "intimate" relationship with her husband one day and not being able to have kids. Praise God for his goodness! She will have to have to give birth by c-section which she has said is OK since she already knows what it feels like to hurt "down there"...she doesn't want to feel that again! =) Oh the innocence of an 8 year old.

She celebrated her 8th birthday laying in a bed which was slightly depressing to her and to us....UNTIL almost every person she knows and loves showed up with gifts, flowers, balloons and signs! She was showered with love and it was amazing to watch our little girl experience God's love through his people. So thanks to all of you for loving on our little girl...she will NEVER forget this birthday!

When we finally got the OK to go home we gratefully packed up our bags and looked forward to sleeping in our own beds!

Its been 4 weeks since her surgery and I am AMAZED at how quickly she has recovered! Praise God!!! She can do just about everything except ride a bike or jump on the trampoline but just by looking at her and her activity you wouldn't guess she had just went through what she did! For that we are extremely thankful. Through this we learned that we are not in control, only God is and even through hard times he still remains GOOD. He loves us, protects us, showers us with encouragement through his people and gives us joy in the time of trials. Thank you, Lord.

Kenna's wonderful nurse Collette who was with her 3 of the 4 days. And one of her 2 American Girl dolls that she got for her big day!

Kenna talking to Mamo on her birthday.

And this is only one part of the room!

The IV is out and she is ready to go home! So is mommy!

What we been doin' round here....

First of all I stand corrected! Thanks for all the comments girls...its nice to know you all visit me every once in a while! Keep up the comments! =)

Here's a little update:

Memorial Day Weekend: We took the kids over to the Whites and Michael taught Jaxon & Kenna how to ride dirt bikes! They both did awesome! Kenna was a natural and of course she went as fast as the bike would let her!

My girl doin' her thang!

Jax taking the hill with no problems!

This is almost a daily occurrence....swimming with friends and some sort of cold treat to finish the day off! Who wouldn't love summer if this is all it entails!

This is my FAVORITE! Every time I turn on music Hudson and Ty run for what Ty likes to call their "tah tar (guitar) and dum stids (drum sticks), and they ROCK OUT! Every time! Hudson is usually the lead guitar and lead singer and Ty gets his stool and straws out to bang the drums (or the hearth). I love turning on the music each day with this to look forward too!

Jam session!

Here is my girl listening to her classical music....she does this twice a day for 15 minutes each and she loves it.

Library Books! We are trying to make it to the Library each week to get new books to look at. Jaxon reads about 5 books a week so at that rate I cant afford to buy him books!

Here is Huddy looking through his picture books... I think we have checked out every I spy book more than 3 times each!

And last but not least, Huddy learned to ride a two wheeler! He learned in about 2 minutes and 30 seconds!!! Now he's outside every day taring up the pavement!

I just love summer! So many fun activities and the change in the regular school schedule is like a breath of fresh air!

End of the school year

Wow! It has been a while! Ive missed some things the last few months and just decided it would be better to start fresh than to try and go back and upload all of those pictures! This is mostly for my mom cause I don't think anyone else really checks this! =)

Anyway, this was the last week for school for Jaxon and Kenna. Other than ERB testing, they had a good time. Yesterday was the Epilogos (or the conclusion if you don't know Latin...I don't) for the 4th, 5th & 6th grades. Its actually an awards ceremony for those kids who excelled this year. As much as they would love to award every kid there just wasn't time for it so they awarded those with the highest achievements. To our surprise Jaxon received 3 different awards! I was shocked and in tears! I know he's a great kid and he works really hard but this school is full of smarty pants so you never know! These are the awards that he received:

1. For making the Headmasters List with a grade point average between 3.5 & 3.78
2. He received an award from his teacher for being one of the most diligent students through out the year
3. And he received the National Physical Fitness Award! (which was the only one that didn't totally surprise me since he is the 2nd fasted kid in the 4th-6th grade! He ran the mile in 6.58 min.)

We were so proud of him! After the Epilogos we headed to a park in Meridian and had a big picnic with the families of Foundations. Jaxon played soccer (of course), Kenna took the little boys on the giant blow up slide that was there about 15 times! She's such a good big sister! We are so so so proud of Kenna this year too. She worked so hard in school this year and she is moving on to the 2nd grade!!! Way to go Kenna! I just know that when you get to go to Epilogos, you'll get awards too!

Here is Jaxon receiving the NPFA award!

Proud Daddy!

Proud Mama

Jeffrey and Jaxon- the two boys in the 4th grade to get the Diligence award! Way to go boys!

Here are all the awards that will be scrap booked shortly!

Cora & Kenna at the end of the year Pioneer Days party! This is Kenna's best school friend.

My little Prairie girl!

Wash those clothes....I told her she would have to wash her clothes by hand this summer if she didn't keep her room clean! hee hee!

Jaxon's end of the year party was a Middle Ages Theme! This is Jaxon's buddy Spencer who he also rode the 25 mile bike ride with!

Sir Jaxon Hughes!

Disney world Day 6 (Hollywood studios)

Our last day was spent at Hollywood studios. We had a really great time and loved the roller coaster rides at this park.

They had American Idol auditions that morning and Kenna, Jay and Jaxon kept trying to get me to try out....I chickened out! So this is as close as I got. =)

Radiator Springs!! Finally we got to see Lightning and Mater! The little boys had been waiting all week for them to show up! Hudson was very excited and said he hoped the "Life is a Highway" song plays when he is getting his picture taken. And Ty said he was gonna "hud Mater when he dot up dare". And he did!

This was the BEST ride!! The Hotel of Terror! It was an elevator ride that dropped you an insane number of floors and then took you back up to do it again! So much fun! Kenna and Jaxon loved it! Mamo hated it but Papa made her do it!

We got to see a short reenactment of Beauty and the Beast....Kenna and I were singing all day long!
My little Beauty! She said Belle is her favorite princess!

Lights, Action, Stunts and Car chases! Things were blowing up and burning rubber, guns were shot and a man caught on fire! Very entertaining! Hudson LOVED it!

Waiting for the show to begin!

Kenna loved the High School Musical concert in the street.

Papa and Mamo with the little guys. It was so fun having them there with us. An adult to kid ratio is highly recommended! Plus it was just fun for the kids to build that memory with them! Thanks for going with us Mom and Dad!

This is as we were driving out of the park for the last time! Good Bye Disney World!