Happy Holidays

Happy Holidays from our home to yours. We are counting this as our card this year. We once had a list of friends with addresses and such but have no idea where we put it in our move AND we are attempting to simplify (and maybe--just maybe--we're a tad lazy too).
All the same, we are grateful for all that we have. For wonderful family and friends, for our home, for good jobs, for our beautiful world, for the holidays, for the gospel, but especially for our Savior. May your holidays be bright and wonderful.

Seriously Happy Holidays!

At the 10th

Ryan has been looking forward to his birthday like all kids do. This year however i have said a few too many times to him that he can't get older or bigger. So for a while he would say when his birthday came in December he was going to be "another five." We decided we'd better correct that so that he really did know he was going to be six. So as his birthday got closer he would say "it's almost my birthday and I'm going to be six, right mom?" and wait for the confirmation. So as much as i tried to keep him from getting older he just did it anyway. He tried to not get older for me, but even he couldn't help it. He's told lots of people his birthday was coming and that it was in December but when they would ask what day his response was "at the tenth."
For Ryan's birthday we let him pick what he wanted to do in the afternoon with just Blake and i (since Blake had to work that night). He helped me make brownies since he wanted brownies and coco puffs for his dessert (it's because we like to have coco puffs with peppermint ice cream). He had a good day and loves that he is now six. He comments all the time that he is six now just like his cousin Dallin and his friends.Last week as we were sitting down to eat dinner Ryan said in his prayer "bless Heavenly Father to know that i am six too."

Abracadabra and hocus pocus!

Ryan, lately, has not gone very far without his trusty cape. He has it on himself, or on his stuffed dog (Toby). And since we won't let him sleep with it on, it is hangs above his bed on a cowboy hook. He loves it. Some days he's batman and some days he's superman. Perfect for a little boy who loves to do the super hero thing. A few weeks ago he came up with an additional use for his cape. Actually it goes back to Ethan pulling out his magic stuff that has been boxed up since the move. In the box of magic stuff is a hat. One that you can pull a rabbit out of. Ryan just happens to have a small green rabbit (also named Toby) that fits just perfectly for the magic trick. So one afternoon while I was cleaning in the kitchen Ryan came down the stairs with the magic hat and his cape and said "look mom, I'm a gician." I said a what? and he replied "a gician" (like magician with out the ma part). Silly kid. Then he proceeded to pull the rabbit out of the hat all proud of himself. After that i asked him if i could take a picture of him being a gician and he said yea. Then he posed with the cape in front of his face saying I'm a bad a gician as he wrinkled up his face behind the cape. I just asked him again if he was a bad guy and he said no i am a good guy with a mad face. Silly me.

All guts no gore!

It has tried to be a tradition with the males in my family to go fishing around conference time. Tried is the key word. When trying to fit that many schedules it gets pushed off from time to time. This time around was no different and the trip was just barely made the week of thanksgiving. Better late, then never right? Blake and Ryan (and Bill and his boys) were the only ones to miss it this time. This was Grandpa's first time to make it. Because Blake had to work Grandpa offered to take Ethan and Sam with him. They were stoked from the moment i told them they could go if they wanted. The only problem with going this much later means that it's that much colder. At the same time it adds to the fun right? Plus it means there has to be a fire, and boys and fire mix--it's totally in the dna. They left far earlier than the crack of dawn. I think mike calls it dark thirty or dark thirty one.

I went over to Orem to meet up with the male folks at my parents and to pick up the boys after the fishing was done. They all came home about 11 or 12 smelling like fire and fish and smiles on their faces. I'm sure my boys imparted wisdom and that my brothers imparted wisdom to them. In all reality I'm not sure which one of those statements worries me more.

When they got to grandma and grandpa Priday's house they started an additional lesson. GUTTING. yuck!!

It was really quite funny to watch. Ethan was all kinds of excited about it and fascinated with the whole process. Sam on the other hand was as far from gutting as possible. And even Ryan went over to take a look at what was going on (see picture) but he followed it with a big Yuck. Ethan successfully gutted his own fish that he caught, with Darin's tutorial. Unfortunately that evening when Blake was grilling up the fish he found that the poor fishes back had been broken/shattered in the gutting process so that it meant that every bite would have bones in it. Maybe next year he'll have a little more finesse. Thanks grandpa for taking the boys and thanks to the brothers (and Casey who counts as a brother) for bringing them home and getting the tradition planned.

IT's time to PARTAY!!!

For Sam's birthday Ryan made him a card. I thought it was quite good.

Sam's birthday is Nov. 12th, Ryan's birthday is Dec. 10th. So this year we decided to have a combined party since they have a lot of similar friends and their friends are in the same families etc. So a few weeks ago we had a big party of boys and one lonely girl here at our house. Blake's parents had brought 3 large (and i really mean extra large) pinatas from El Salvador 3 years ago and we've had them in the basement and garage over the years thinking we needed to use them. So for this big ol' party we broke out (hahaha literally) the pinatas. We ended up having 13 boys and 1 girl here for the fun. Our neighbors son and daughter came a little after i took this picture and i didn't think to get another picture.

note the 2 other pinatas in the back ground--Clifford the big red dog and a dalmatian. you'd be amazed how much candy fits into just one of these pinatas.So just for future reference when planning a party with 3 pinatas the kids will need bigger bags for their candy. And notes sent home with parents explaining that yes they really did get to take home that much candy. I'm sure the parents really appreciated it since they had probably just finished off their Halloween candy. Sugar highs were extended to Thanksgiving I'm sure.

Thanks grandma and papa Young. The pinatas were a hit (hehehe--sorry i couldn't help myself). And happy birthday to my boys!