Riding and feeding the horse in the farm section at the childrens museum. The website for the children's museum said" fun for all ages". So we all went. It was not so fun for Jarin and Allison but they kept good attitudes. That is why they chose where to eat after. They picked Wingers. Yum. There were tons more activities here but I got busy and forgot to take pictures. Jason's favorite activity was being on the news. You could make a newscast or be the weather reporter. Every time we lost him we could find him on the news.

Here is Ashley playing at the water table. She wants to come back here on her birthday with just Jason.

This is the little coloring table thing grandma Townsend gave to Ashley for Christmas. She loves to color and now she can color anywhere. She loves it.

Jason's Giant candy bar...His favorite gift. Not only his favorite gift..A gift Jason's dreams are made of. He loved it. He hasn't eaten any yet but he loves to hold it.

Christmas morning

Allison and her cup cake maker. Thanks Allison for all the yummy cupcakes!

Jason's night vision goggles with a "maxifying" glass. Now he can not be scared in the dark at night. And he can read "wimpy Kid" while Ashley is sleeping with the light off.

Roxi was so confused and she hated all the loud toys. She kept coming to sit right by me. It did not help that Jarin got this little hand help massager and he kept massaging her with it. She really hated it.

I told Jarin he had to smile or he could not open any more presents.

Girls Christmas jammies and new robes. They got slippers also but they do not show in the picture.

Boys Christmas Jammies. We had a great Christmas. It is so nice to spend a day at home and relaxing after all the craziness of the weeks before Christmas. We spend the whole day in our Jammies eating candy and Christmas cookies (with an occasional ham thrown in) and playing with our new toys. It helped this year because it is a very snowy Christmas day and so it is safer to just stay home.

Christmas Eve

Uncle Mike, Allison, and Heather....Christmas Joy?

James and His Dad.

Jason and Sam arm wrestling

Christmas cookies

Making Christmas Cookies for Santa

Santa's cookies Yumm

Mine and Ashley's cookies

Allison's cookies

O.K I feel really bad. So I have to say that before you speak or blog you should get all the facts. The "guy" in the green shirt is actually a girl who lost her mother recently. My heart broke when Allison told me and I hope to never judge again. Please forgive me.

I forgot to post that Jarin won his first match. It was at a tournament at the beginning of the month. He gets better all the time. Some of the guys he wrestles are HUGE. Yeah Jarin.

Annual School Christmas Program.

I tried to crop these pictures and it just did not work for some reason. Allison was way in the back and it was hard to see her. This is the only picture I could get. See the boy in front of her in the green shirt? His bangs seriously covered his eyes and nose the entire time. When he sang the air from his mouth would blow his hair. It was hard not to laugh at him. What was his mother thinking?

Jason was grumpy. Not sure what happened today but they almost made him not able to join the singing at all. I talked to his teacher. I am not sure you can use not being in the Christmas program as a punishment. But he was there. He was either giving me dirty looks or sad looks the entire time. But he did sing!!

Ashley was first thing at 9:00. Why is it that the kindergartners are cute no matter what? They did a great job. They sang the reindeer hokey pokey. That was Cute!

This is Ashley and Payson and their dogs. Their dogs are best friends and so are they.

Our Sunday

Here is Ashley peeling potatoes. She was so excited to help. It took her almost an hour to peel three potatoes but she just kept at it and did not want me to take over. She said, "This is really hard mom but I am not going to quit." She was very proud of herself and wants potatoes tomorrow night as well.

Jason was really good at stake conference but he fell apart at home. He got sent to his room. While he was up there he started yelling for help. Since that is a normal occurance and usually means nothing I ignored him until he started saying he was stuck. I sent Jarin to check on him. Jarin came down the stairs laughing, got the camera and came down again with these pictures. Jason was trying to hide from us under his mattress on the top bunk. He really was stuck. He doesn't look too distressed. Sundays are so fun.

Ashley likes to have her picture taken. So she wanted me to take one of her in the cute Santa hat in front to the tree. It did not turn out that well.

Jason had to get in on the picture taking too. But he can't hold still--even for a picture. He had to pretend he was Santa delivering presents.

Jarin's first wrestling match

We went to our first wrestling match for Jarin tonight. I was out of my realm. I know what to yell at baseball games. I had know idea at this. I could kind of tell when someone was doing well. The other parents assure me I will know all about it by the end of the season. Jarin did really great for his first time.

Warming up before the match. Does he look nervous? He was.

Here is Jarin during the match. He did real well for his very first time. He almost made through the first round--he did get pinned but thinks he will know a little more what to do next time.

Helpful hints from the coach after the match

We are so thankful for our dog. She is cute and good and will do anything for a treat--especially turkey. We had a great thanksgiving and now we are so ready to move on to the Christmas season. I love the Christmas season.

Welcome to Beehives Allison!!!!!!

The beehives wanted to come decorate Allison's room for her birthday and welcome her to YW's. We are redoing her room for her birthday so it is all torn apart. So I told them they could do the kitchen. Boy did they do the kitchen!! We had to take her away(they wanted it to be a suprise) and Jason heard me tell Jarin that the beehives were coming. We got home just a little before they were done. Jason was running all over the upstairs yelling "where are the bees?" Anyway Happy Birthday Allison. YW's is so fun and you are going to have so much fun there. Your family loves you.

Jason is a yellow belt

Here is the group of kids getting promoted. Jason was supposed to hide his old belt behind his back but he is so very proud of his three tips. (the two black lines and one red) those are the markers that show he is earning his next belt. He was so good and stayed focused. Karate was one of the best things we ever did for that boy.

Here is jason standing at attention waiting to begin--still a white belt

Here he is doing show time kicks. He can pick any series of kicks (3 kicks) then they do the black belt stance and courtesy and go back. I wish you could see the concentration on Jason's face.

He is making the symbolic sign that means you are leaving the old belt behind and embracing the new one. The two belts form and L. The L stands for longevity, loyalty and constant learning. Aren't they cute?

Here is Jason sitting still and not moving a muscle while the instructors discuss how the class did. He sat still not moving for a long time. This is so amazing. We love Karate!!

Allison got the principal's pride award on Ashley's birthday. She got it for her oustanding work on a big math assignment. Yeah Allison.

Ashley got a lil'kinz pug for her birthday. She loves webkinz. Such a great toy. you get a stuffed animal and something to play on the computer.

We did not have any candles so we used the ones left over for the pumpkins on halloween. Does that sound like something my mother would do or what? We had two candles that were pretty big so I told her each one was worth three. She thought that was great. Jason was singing a very enthusiastic "happy birthday" complete with "cha-cha cha's".

Ashley's birthday party.

Ashley Jean turned six. I guess I have to quit calling her my 4 year old. It is so fun to watch her grow but it is also a little sad. She had a birthday party with some friends from school and church. We played a game where we popped balloons by sitting on them. I think I got the wrong kind of balloons because they would not pop. So I told the kids they could pop it any way they could. They had so much fun doing this and it took almost a half an hour to get them all popped(I blew up a lot of balloons.)

Murray Park

We went to Murray park. One of my favorite places to go in the fall. We were taking some pictures and having a little fun.