domo arigato

Ethan's piano teacher just started having him play "Axel F" for his lessons. It's one of those songs that most people know but don't know or can't remember the name (it's also known as the "Crazy frog" song). So when we got home from piano i pulled it up on the internet and let the boys hear it. They got their groove on once the music started, and the camera was right there, so........(Ethan and Sam will thank us later, i just know it!)

Oh and Ethan's getting pretty good at playing it on the piano (might have to get a synthesizer to make it official, but it's still pretty cool).

Baby it's cold outside!

With winter here we have tried to enjoy it as much as possible. My youngest brother was able to hook the siblings up with ski passes. So I went skiing on Christmas Eve Day with my parents and my brothers. I thought I'd be ok since i had been running some up till the 1st of December (so i wasn't completely out of shape). But just so you know skiing and running use different muscles (all of them are in your legs--cause that's what hurt so much). I haven't been skiing for a number of years since we've been doing the snowboarding thing over the last few. Blake likes that better since he's never really loved skiing in the first place. I have not been skiing even a few years beyond that since pregnancies, and small children, and finances kept me from the slopes. Needless to say i was totally excited to go skiing. I should explain that i have never been the daredevil skiers that my brothers have been. I'm more about enjoying the cool crisp air and beautiful scenery and that kind of skiing. If you're going so fast down the hill that every thing is a blur you're missing half the stuff i enjoy skiing for. Plus it makes your boogers freeze. I was hoping that since my parents were going my dad would go with the brothers and i would ski with my mom, and we'd go at the slower pace. But my dad was counting on my mom to keep him from having to go at top speeds with my brothers. We just ended up all skiing together which was a blast. So as a teenager i was never able to keep up with my brothers skiing and that has not changed. They were patient and would go down supper fast to one spot, and then stop and wait for the rest of us (my mom and dad, and lastly me). I did learn one very important thing, i didn't miss the ski boots much. Oh and a few other things--hold on to your poles like the stickers on the ski lift say, lift your tips, goggles and sunglasses are great at keeping the snow out of your eyes but when it's foggy and you're skiing in a cloud both make it harder to see anything, having the right gear does help at all times whether it's boots, gloves, 2 skis, and 2 poles. It was such an awesome day. I loved being with my parents and my brothers. We had some good laughs it was great. Thanks Darin for the hook up, thanks mike for the good laughs, thanks to the wives of my brothers for letting them go, thanks dad for warming my toes, thanks mom and dad for the ride, and sorry if i was "in the way of the pictures" and "ruined them". Sorry no pictures from the day--i wasn't smart enough to take my camera and mom and dad have not shared their pictures yet.
*total side note, last time i went skiing with my family was when Blake and i first kissed 14 years earlier. good times, good times.
the boys have also started to enjoy the additional fun activities of winter as well. Sam for his birthday got a snowboard from target (not a real one, but one to see if snowboarding was something they'd enjoy). so far Sam has done pretty good and Ethan is going to be the adventurous one. He was trying to do jumps over at our neighborhood park. in just a few tries both boys seem to have accomplished as much as Blake and i did after a morning of trying our first time. Good thing we have some good hills around here to keep them happy for a little while.
And with all the hills around us as well we have sledding right close to home so we don't' have to pack up to go anywhere. The week between Christmas and new years even our neighborhood had a sledding night. Had a fire pit and soups and hot chocolate to stay warm with and some flood lights to light up the area. It was a blast. The boys have loved being outside in the snow so much we let them go out while we stay nice and warm inside. I just have to say again how much i love it out here where we live.

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!