Christmas!

We had a great trip to Boise for Christmas. The kids loved seeing Grandma & Grandpa Deppe and their aunts, uncles and cousins. We celebrated Christmas eve with a delcicious dinner, games, decorating piggy banks, and a gift delivered from the elves. Taylor and Emily are at the perfect age for Santa and love all that comes with Christmas!

On Christmas morning, amazingly the kids slept in until 8am! They woke up and were thrilled to find Santa had come and found them in Boise. Taylor was thrilled with his magnet games, art stuff and pokemon cards. Emily was delighted with her baby high chair and play make up. Isaac got a Igloo tent with a tunnel and it kept him entertained the whole morning.

We had huge, yummy cinnamon rolls for breakfast and then relaxed and enjoyed the day. It was so fun to spend time with all of Danny's family and enjoy playing games, walking down by the river and watching movies in the movie room.

We will always love Idaho and sometimes miss living in Boise.

Last night we went to the extended Shields Christmas party and had fun party. It was a fantastic party with dinner, a program, games, obstacle course, etc.... Derek performed a song with Taylor, Emily and Natalie and it was great. They love their uncle Derek. It was a fun party that went late into the night.

We can't wait for New Years!

Christmas Activities

This has been a fun week full of many fun Christmas activites! Taylor made this cute Gingerbread house in his class at school. It was packed full of yummy candy, which he ate all the way home from school. Taylor loves his teacher and has had a fabulous year in 1st grade.

Then earlier this week Aunt Nat was being a little grumpy. She got a special delivery from Santa's elves, and it was a big bag of coal. The poem told her to change her attitude, or expect more coal on Christmas. The kids thought it was great, and it helped Taylor and Emily shape up as well. Taylor also made this cute snowman gift bag for a gift he made in his class.

Then we had a fun, Hawkins Christmas Party at Uncle John's house. There was a delicious dinner, games, chimes, bingo and candy guessing jars. The kids had tons of fun and it was great to see all the extended family.

We Love this time of year. We can't wait for Christmas!!

A week of "first's"

This has been a week of first's for Taylor and Emily. Taylor has not lost any teeth yet, so he went to the dentist to have two teeth removed. The teeth were fused together so they needed to be removed in order for his other teeth to start loosening.

He was very brave and said it hurt a lot. He enthusiastically put the giant tooth under his pillow for the tooth fairy. His friends have told him about all the money they get from the tooth fairy so he had high hopes. What ever happened to a quarter a tooth?

Then yesterday Emily had her first dance recital. She was excited about the show all week, but when we got to the school she got really nervous. She was terrified of going on stage and was clinging to me as I walked her up to perform. She started crying and looked so sad, but she pulled through, started dancing and by the end of the song was smiling and loving all the attention on her! I was so relieved. She has come along way these past few months and has made huge improvements in her self esteem and ability to be around other people.

Showing off her red nail polish!

We love you Emily and we are so proud of you!

Let it Snow!

We've been playing outside in the snow this week, even though it's 16 degrees outside! It's freezing cold for me but Taylor, Emily and Isaac love being in the snow. They beg me to build a snowman, go sledding, or build a snow fort.

Isaac looks jjust like Taylor did when he was this age. Taylor wore all these same snow clothes when he was one. Isaac says "No, No," for snow, over and over when we play in the snow. It's one of his favorite words right now.

Emily likes to make snow angels and go sledding. She loves her cute new snow hat, (thanks to Aunt Katie).

Time to go get warm with hot chocolate!

Wassil Party 2009!

We attended our First ever Wassil Party hosted by Marcus Shields. We have livedout of Utah for the past seven years, and have never been fortunate to attend the event.

It was a fantastic Christmas party complete with ugly sweaters, treats, sing-along carols,hot cocoa, a photo booth, steaming wassil, and lots of friends and family.

Taylor and Emily thought the party was great. They got to stay up late, eat candy and drink cocoa.Taylor wanted his sweater to be "ugly" so he put duct tape all over the front and back.

A good time was had by all, we are so glad we could see all the outrageous sweaters, hats and boots.What a wonderul way to start the Christmas season!

Primary X-mas Party

We had a fun Primary Christmas party on Friday afternoon. It was a fabulous gingerbread making party, full of candy, friends and fun.
Emily and Taylor were thrilled to decorate their houses with tons of candy and yummy frosting.

Taylor and his friends made quite a mess on their clothes, hands and table.

Emily ate most of her candy off her house as soon as we got home.

It's starting to feel more like Christmas, we are all so excited for the holidays!

Christmas lights!

Tonight we went to Temple Square to see all the Christmas lights. The kids had fun bundling up and running around in their snow clothes! We had a great night seeing the Christmas Nativity, watching a movie about Jesus and seeing all the beautiful lights. It was a fun night and the kids love being with their cousins. We really wish Brett & Teresa lived in Utah so we could see them more often.

Thanksgiving Part 3

We had a wonderful Sunday today for Turner's blessing day! He is such a cute, sweet little baby. It was fun to get together with friends and family to celebrate such an adorable little guy. Dave and I also celebrated our Birthday's (sorry no pics).

Happy Birthday to us!

Thanksgiving Part 2:

On Thankgiving day we went to Springville to celebrate the day at Goofy Grandma & Grandpa's house. We ate a delicious meal and too much pie and treats. Taylor and Emily met Cole and Cooper and had fun playing Air Hockey, eating chocolate turkey's (Thanks to Aunt Katie) watching football games and playing at the park. It was great see all the Wall siblings and have time to chat. We have so much to be grateful for and appreciate all our many blessings!

Isaac discovered he loves pumpkin pie with lots of whipped cream. Emily was thrilled when she got a new skirt from grandma (an early Christmas present). Taylor was happy when Danny taught him to squirt the whipped cream straight into his mouth.

We hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving Part 1

We are having a fun week getting ready to celebrate Thanksgiving!

Brett & Teresa are visiting from Phoenix and the kids love having them in SLC to play. Last night we took them to Chuck -E-Cheese and spent all our tokens in one hour. The kids hot tubbed with Grandpa Shields and then played games.

Then today we took the kids to the Zoo, and had a fantastic day seeing all the animals in the warm sunshine.

Hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving!

The funny things kids do:

This week has been full of funny things my kids have said or done.

Today, Emily comes upstairs in this outfit. This is a skort, with a liner inside that she got for her B-day. She put it over her shoulder like a dress and it was hilarious. She was insisting on wearing it and wouldn't' believe me when I told her it was not a dress! She definately has her own sense of style.

Isaac and Becca have been having tons of fun together, playing, fighting and eating. This is their most favorite spot at Grandma Shields house, they both love to eat! Isaac just tortures Becca and gets jealous of whatever she has whether it's a toy, snack, or a person. He needs to learn how to share with a younger person.

Becca loved her lunch of Mac and Cheese. She was thrilled when I gave her a bowl and a spoon and let her loose. She ate her bowl and Isaac's bowl too. She is such sweet, adorable girl!

Isaac has been talking more lately. He still has his own little language, but he's slowly adding new words. This week Aunt Nat taught him to say "bite" which he repeats over and over when he wants to try your food. Any time you ask him a question he nods his head and says "NO" , but if his answer is yes, he says "Da" instead of "Ya". He has a funny personality and lots of energy.

Taylor has been saying the funniest things too:

Last week we were driving to Arctic Circle to redeem the kids free ice cream cones and I was telling Taylor and Emily to wear a bib, so Isaac wouldn't make a huge mess. I said "it's cool to wear a bib, let's all do it." Taylor replied "I don't need to be cool I need to be simple."

Natalie and I were laughing so hard, it was funny.

Then yesterday before school I was telling Taylor how it was cold and he needed to wear his gloves and hat. He looks at me and says "Mom, I'm too popular to wear gloves."! I started laughing so hard, I had to turn away from him so he wouldn't see me laughing. I don't know what that means, but apparently it's not cool to be warm.

I love being entertained by my adorable, funny kids-they keep us constantly laughing.

Things I am grateful for today:

This week for FHE we had a lesson about "Gratitude" We talked about all the blessing we have and asked the kids to name a few things they are grateful for. They came up with the cutest ideas; Exercise, freedom, electricity, playing, were a few.

So I thought I would list a few things I am especially grateful for today.

I am grateful for Nutella. Everyone is our house loves this stuff, it is so delicious. Isaac especially likes this on toast, or bread and he gets all excited when I get it out of the cupcoard. He makes a huge mess on his face, but it's so cute.
I am grateful for wonderful, sweet, smart children.

Emily has been improving socially lately, which is great. She is such funny girl, she used to act like she hated eveyone, even Danny, but lately she has been better. She will even go to ballet and to play with her friends WITHOUT me, which is huge improvement. Also, she decided she loves Danny and now wants his help with things, which is a miracle!

Taylor is turning into a great reader, and good student. He has gotten 100% on all of his spelling tests and is really progressing in reading and math etc... His teacher said he is a sweet, unselfish friend to the kids in his class as well as being a fabulous student. I am so proud of him!

Finally I am grateful for gorgeous, warm sunny autumn days like today.

We went to Taylor's last soccer game of the season, and the weather is just perfect, I wish is would last until March.

Taylor had a fun soccer season and his team made a lot of improvements and started playing really well by the end. He had a cute bunch of boys on his team. Last week he scored two goals and he was thrilled with his accomplishment. Great job, Taylor!