Climbing Hills

Ty and Tag LOVE to climb hills and we had a great day out on the Rhino and climbing lots of big hills! Ty was so proud of himself for climbing such tall hill! Bless her little heart, Tenley really tried to climb, but didn't get too far!

Popcorn Poppin and Gold Butte

My kids have definitely inherited my LOVE for popcorn! When I was growing up my family would pop popcorn and watch a Hallmark movie or other family movie every Sunday night. It was one of our traditions and I LOVED it! I do not like movie theater popcorn or microwave popcorn and am very passionate about Air Pop Popcorn! In my view it is the ONLY way to go! I also am very particular about the amount of "real butter" that goes on my popcorn! I only like a HINT of butter and that is why I am in charged of putting the butter on the popcorn! Well, my kids get so EXCITED when they hear the popcorn popper start up and they LOVE to help mom out! I think it is just too cute and I am glad that my kids have the same PASSION for popcorn that I do! With that being said, it makes a HUGE mess and sometimes I wait till they are in bed to make it because I don't want the mess...is that bad? However, the other day we made popcorn and of course there was popcorn everywhere when we were finished! I was so proud of Ty when he went and got the vacuum and starting cleaning up the mess and I didn't even ask him to! Do I have a GREAT son or what!! Now you know my little secret love affair with popcorn!

Now onto the Gold Butte trip! We went out in December to help with the Gold Butte cleanup effort! The kids had a blast climbing all the rocks and taking rides on the rhino! Tenley loved playing in the fire pit...I finally gave up and let her play until her little heart was content! The boys ate lots and lots of hotdogs and drank a ton of hot chocolate! I wish we had gotten a picture of Tags face...it was covered in hot chocolate! Ty and Tag were trying to act like "angry guards" and were crackin me up! I just love the things they think of! They also learned about what happens when people don't pick up their trash before they leave and had lots of fun finding trash to put in the trash bag! It was a great day and I once again was reminded about all the beautiful creations our Heavenly Father has given us to enjoy and I hope my children will learn that if we all pitch in and take care of these beautiful places, that they will remain a place of beauty that we can go and enjoy!  What a great way to spend a Saturday, in my humble opinion! I think it took about 10 seconds for the kids to crash and burn!

One last thing, Grammy and Poppy wanted a picture of the boys in their white shirts and ties! I was telling them on skype how handsome they looked! Well, getting this picture wasn't exactly easy! My husband does not wear EVER wear a tie because he feels like he is being choked to death! Well, my two boys immediately say to me after I put on the tie, "mom this tie is choking me!!", as they are pulling on the tie to try and get it off! So there were many tears shed and I very sternly said with a forced smile, "you will stand there and smile for the camera! Grammy and Poppy want to see how handsome you look with your white shirts and ties!" This was the only picture that turned out and I just think they look like little missionaries! I LOVE it! With that being said, the ties were taken off in about 2.5 seconds after the picture was taken! What am I going to do with them?

Merry Christmas

 the kids making music on Christmas Eve!

 Opening Christmas Eve PJ's

 I gave up trying to get everyone looking at the camera

 Grandpa and Grandma Jensen came to share Christmas morning with us...the kids were so excited to have them!

 Josh spoiled me this year with an IPad 2! I love it!!

 I love Tag's expression in this picture

 Tag did not want to go on the pavement with the 4-wheeler!

 Tenley's gift from daddy! she looked so stinkin cute!

 Tenley loves the 4-wheeler...Aunt Ticia gave this to us and with $30 and some elbow grease, Josh had it up and running just in time for another Christmas surprise!

Tag and Ty have loved the new trampoline that Santa brought them!

Christmas this year was by far the best Christmas ever for our little family! The kids are at that age where the magic of Christmas comes alive! They were so excited for Christmas to come and they kept saying that they couldn't see Santa because he would disappear if they tried to come out of their rooms to see him! We had a great Christmas Eve with the Nelson family, but Josh had to work all day and didn't get to the party until about 7:30! I was exhausted from having the kids all day and Tenley normally goes to bed at 6:30, so she was so tired at the Christmas Eve get together! I was so happy to see Josh, so I could have a little help! The Nelson's have a tradition where they do a progressive dinner! We started at their mom and dad

house and had yummy appetizers and salad.  Then they had some fun Christmas songs.  It reminded me of home because we always gather around the piano and sing Christmas songs and make beautiful harmonies! I just love Christmas music! The Nelson's are so musically talented that they had bells, violins, and cello's playing too! It warmed my heart and made it feel the Christmas! We then went to Kristy's house for the main course and the boys loved playing with all their cool tools! They were not happy when it was time to go to the next house and said, "Aunt Kristy's house is the coolest house ever!" I thought it was cute that they called her Aunt Kristy!  Then it was off to Dustin and Lauren's house for sugar cookie decorating! The kids ate way too many cookies and had so much decorating the cookies! I was so full that I didn't even want to think about eating any cookies...that always helps with the Christmas weight gain! Josh made it just in time for cookies and visiting and then it was time to go home and get the kids bathed and ready to open their Christmas Eve Present! Ty couldn't wait to open his present! I don't think he has figured out that he always gets pj's and hopefully he won't for a few more years! After opening their gift we snuggled them all into bed and went to work! I was so exhausted that I just wanted to crawl in bed, so I was happy that this year we didn't have as much to do! Josh came home for a couple hours during work to put the trampoline up, so that helped a lot and we didn't want to be doing it in the dark! Mr. and Mrs. Clause may not have gotten divorced it that would have been the case! I think it was around 10:30 when we crawled into bed! Christmas morning came way to early, but I knew it would! I heard the boys door open and then I heard a lot of "ooooo's and awwwwww'" and "this is just what I wanted!" I got Josh out of bed and called Grandma and Grandpa who were already on their way with hot chocolate! The kids loved everything they got and they really LOVED the trampoline and laser stunt chaser cars they got! Tenley loved her jewelry set that daddy got her and her toy cube and pop up toy! She loves phones and this toy cube had a phone on it and she loves to talk on the phone! It was supper cold, so the boys didn't jump for very long, but the trampoline has gotten a lot of use since Christmas Day! It has been so nice to have the boys play outside and not just always want to play computer games or the Wii! We had sacrament meeting at 9:00, so we rushed off to church and the boys could hardly wait to get back home and play with all their new toys! It was so nice to be a church on Christmas morning! There was a special spirit there as songs were sung and thoughts were shared! It was just perfect and I hope that as we talked about the true meaning of Christmas with our kids all month long for family home evening, that they really understood why we celebrate Christmas and felt that spirit too! Josh had one more surprise for the boys! We were given this old 4-wheeler from Josh's sister! With $30 for a new battery and some elbow grease, Josh had it up and running just in time for Christmas morning! The boys were so excited and Ty has become such a good little driver! He does really well and is getting his confidence up the more he drives it! He even climbed his first hill and you could tell he was pretty scared, but then you saw the joy and excitement in his face once he was up and over that hill! We were so proud of him! Tenley loves for Ty to take her rides around the backyard and he is such a cautious little driver when she is on with him! He is such a good big brother to both Tag and Tenley! As I said in the beginning of this post, we had a WONDERFUL Christmas this year! We are grateful for our Savior Jesus Christ and what his birth has meant to us and our lives! I hope that as our children grow up, that they too will have a great love for their Savior and understand what his birth means for them!