children's museum

Over Martin Luther king day, I was determined to do something fun instead of sitting at home with my kids all day.  We decided to go down and stay the night with Lesli and her cute family and then we went to the Children's museum at Gateway the next day.  We had lots of fun.  It would have been more fun if dad could have come (and easier too:), but we did it and I decided having four kids isn't going to stop us from doing fun things still!  It was a great day!

Hardware Ranch

We had a fun day up at hardware ranch over Christmas break.  I live 20 min. away and I hadn't been there since the 1st grade!  Kind of sad!  Dan and Allison and there cute family went with us along with Jeanie.  Darin had to work :( and Ashley so kindly watched Dawson for me so I could spend time with my big kids.  It was a fun little field trip.  The kids thought it was fun to see all of the Elk.  We ended the trip with hot cocoa...it was a beautiful day!

rewind....Thanksgiving

For Thanksgiving this year (actually the day after...thanksgiving day was spent at my parents but I didn't take a single picture!) we spent the day with the Chase clan at the Institute at USU.  Jeanie is a secretary there and has connections.  She rented the whole building along with blow up houses in the gym and a movie screen in the lounge.  We had loads of fun and the kids were in heaven.  What a fun day!

Carter having some fun jousting!

Camden was having a blast playing football with his cousins.

 And Myah love the bounce house.  Here she is with Kassidie.

 And with no students around, the hallways were great for trikes and scooters.  How fun is that!

Saylor and Myah

And Dawson did a lot of sleeping and was snuggled by everyone!

And thanks to this wonderful Grandma for a fantastic day!  We love you Oma!

Camden's first piano recital

Camden started taking piano this fall.  He has a love hate relationship with it, but he really is pretty good. His teacher is great, she is one of my old young women(she just graduated) and he really likes her. He had his first recital in Dec. He played Jolly Old St. Nicholas. He was terrified, but did great!  He had his song perfect...even with his eyes closed.  He messed up a little bit at the beginning, but took a deep breath and started over and did great.  I was proud of him and thankful he didn't run off after the first mistake...I was a little worried he might:).  It's fun seeing your kids learn new things!

Christmas...we really did celebrate it at our house!

Well I am finally getting around to posting Christmas.  It was a fun Dec.  A little more challenging to do all that I had planned with a newborn in tow, but I think we still made some fun memories.  Here are just a few of the things we did.

Decorating the tree.  Each year I envision this lovely family night decorating the tree.  And I am pretty sure 9 of the 10 years we have been married I have ended up doing it alone.  Well not this year.  I put on the Carpenter's Christmas CD and we attempted to decorate together.  I think it was pretty close to a success:)! 

 Carter attempting to put on the star as a final touch. It was a no go....

 So Camden tried....a no go again.  No worries, mom saved the day!

 The annual trip to the mall to see Santa.  Surprisingly there were no tears this year.  Even Dawson was a trooper.

 Christmas eve.  All of the Parson grand kids minus Max(maybe he is to old:) Camden, Carter, Dawson, Gabrielle, Myah, Clara and Grady.

 My dads favorite thing to do!

 Surprise!!!  Pajama's!

Can you believe these two are only one year apart(just two weeks shy)?!? Lesli makes them tall and we make them short!

 I just loved this picture of Dawson.  For some reason my family always thinks my babies are overdressed and they always end up naked!

 Christmas morning.  It couldn't have come soon enough for this kiddo!

 Carter the builder.  I think "Bob" would have suited him better as a name!

 Even Darin had a smile.  Santa brought him some new suits.  The first in 10 whole years!

 Our little monkey!

 Christmas just wouldn't be the same without a little dish of "girl"!

 and a girl she is!

The rest of the day was spent with the Chase family.  Surprisingly I didn't even pull out the camera.  I guess we were having to much fun!