Sunday Best

Sunday was a big day for us. 

Weston moved up classes in Primary and Tave joined him in Primary!

They were both so cute when I told them Tave wouldn't be going to nursery anymore. Tave got a little nervous, but as soon as I told him he would go to Primary where he could see Weston, nervousness turned into excitement and all was well!  Weston has had a really hard time going  but I think this is really going to help. He said he would give Tave a hug and wave to him from his chair.
They were each dropped off, no tears were shed, and they both said they loved it afterwords. 

YAY!!  

Both boys got new suits and wore them. They look so adorable and grown up, sometimes I can't stand that they are growing bigger. But I just adore their sweet personalities and who they are becoming. 

West:

Tave:

Ryder:

Ryder went to his first, official day in Nursery. It was AWESOME!! He's gone a few times before but we usually stayed with him for part of it or picked him up early since he wasn't quite 18 months yet. 

He'll be 18 months on the 20th but we are starting the year out right (plus I had to teach RS) so it's all good!

He was absolutely, so stinkin adorable in his vest set. And so happy, too. But he just wanted to play or be held by me...no standing still for photos, hence the sadness:

And here we caught a quick grin:

Oh these sweet boys just melt my heart over and over again.

Snow Day!

Saturday morning the boys and I looked out the window to find a world of white! Weston immediately started chanting 'snowball fight' and Tave was calling 'snowman'.  So I promised them fun in the snow... once dad came home. :) We had a busy afternoon but I couldn't ignore my promise, so right before the sun set we headed out. It was getting dark, but we had a blast! 

Ryder couldn't decide what he thought. He loves stomping in little piles, but a whole bunch at once made him a little leery.

Making snowballs with dad:

And throwing snowballs at mom:

oh my cute munchkin!

Snow angels are a must:

Sled rides from dad:

Since the lighting was so poor (and I don't know how to take good pictures at night!) I had to do some creative editing...I love how this one turned out:

It was pretty much dark, but the boys talked us into letting them go down the hill on the sled. Ryder was getting cold by this point, but he really loved going with Jeff:

Weston couldn't get enough:

And our cute Tavester:

Tave had the only casualty of the night... he was a tough guy!

We'll definitely be spending a lot more time in the snow this winter since my kiddos LOVE it (where did they get THAT?!) I hate the cold, but I love seeing them have SO.MUCH.FUN- that makes it worth it! almost.

Latest Posts...catching up!

More October Fun

Family Photo Shoot (November)

Mother-son date night!

November Moments

Thanksgiving Week!

Setting up the Christmas tree.

Christmas Celebration

The Great Name Debate...

For those of you who follow our blog, you KNOW we have a hard time with boys' names.  
This time around,  we're just sticking with our previous lists, narrowing it down, and choosing our fav. We may add a new name or two, but if it has stuck around through two lists, it's probably a keeper. (we didn't have a list with Weston, I just kept saying the name until Jeff agreed, ha!)

Top 11 name list with Tave: (click the link to go to original 2008 post)

• Asher
• Bridger
• Camden
• Jace
• Jett
• Rayner
• Rowan
• Ryder
• Tallan
• Canon or Tannon
• Ty

Top name list with Ryder: (click the link to go to original 2010 post)

·                 Griffin
·      Ryder
·      Canon
·      Ender
·      River
·      Rainer
·      Ronan
·      Rowan
·      Ridge
·      Maddox
·      Madsen
·      Teague
·      Cruise
·      Jett
·      Gage
·      Hunter
·      Tallan
·      Luke

     

      During our long car ride to CA, I was determined to come up with a list that we both liked, so hopefully this little man will get named sooner rather than later! 
    The first thing we did was put the two lists together and bolded/highlighted any names that were on BOTH lists. If there was a name we really liked and wanted to add it was added. We also left off names we didn't care for anymore:

  Jace

Jett

Rayner

Rowan

Tallan

Canon

Luke

Hunter

Callen

Crew

Teague

Griffin (Finn)

    Then we took out any of the names that had the same first letter as the other boys. We really like each boy to have his own initial. Which might seem funny, but it's a nice way to narrow things down. So that took out any W, T, & R names. Then we took off any names ending in 'ER' since Ryder's name ends in that and we also wanted a change.

  Jace

Jett

Rayner

Rowan

Tallan

Canon

Luke

Hunter

Callen

Crew

Teague

Griffin (Finn)

   


     After that, we each had veto power over another name on the list. Jeff had already chosen the middle name (which I am so happy with) so then, we put it through the middle name test: How does it sound with ________.  A few great names were left and here is our final five:  

  Jace

Jett

Canon

Luke  didn't survive the middle name test

Callen

Crew

Griffin (Finn) way too popular due to Glee, darn it.

     I guess we're loving j's or c's this time around!  We each have our favorites. Jeff's are Jace (which was his top choice with Baby #2 until we came up with Tave), Canon, & Jett and mine are Canon & Jett.  So we'll see. We are most definitely still open to any and all suggestions!!  

     Whew, I'm impressed with anyone who has made it through our complex, naming game!  

     Thoughts are welcome. :)

Merry Merry Christmas to YOU!

We are thrilled to announce...

We couldn't be more excited!!

Christmas fun

Jeff's parents had left their Christmas gifts for us at our house and we patiently waited to open them until a little closer to the actual holiday. We didn't want to haul it all to CA, though, so the Sat. before we left we had a mini-Christmas. :) Jeff was done with school (BYU, not work) so he was actually home on a Sat. morning. It was awesome!

The kids were SO excited to get to open gifts early and even more thrilled with what was inside:

 We had fun playing games together all afternoon.

We went out for dinner and then went to see Santa at the Riverwoods. 

If you live in UT, and have never seen the Riverwoods mall at Christmas, we highly recommend going. He is the nicest Santa and it's fun to actually go 'inside' a little cottage.  And to top it all off, the lights are AMAZING!! It was so much fun and the kids LOVED finally telling Santa what they had been hoping for. :)

It was so cute, the entire drive home the boys kept saying what a great family day it was.  They were beyond thrilled to have Daddy with us ALL DAY LONG!!  

Christmas Celebration in UT

Since most of us would be in CA for Christmas, we had an early celebration with Chelsea & the kiddos!  

We had a delicious brunch at Shawn & Abby's, the kids played, exchanged gifts, and had a great time. 

We don't see Chels near enough, the boys were so sad to say goodbye to their cousins!  

Uncle Shawn is always a hit, the kids sure love wrestling:

Sweet Tanneah, she wasn't too pleased with my camera flash:

Aydrien, Tave, West, & Syanne reading to open gifts:

Ryder & Jeff

Chelsea & Tanneah:

Reverie:

The kids were all so thrilled with their new toys! Gift giving success:

Shawn & Abby

My beautiful sisters:  

(we missed you Shar!!)

What a great way to kick off the holiday season!!  

I sure love family. It is such a blessing to live by siblings.

I want to make sure to soak up as much time as I can with them before they move on to another place!!  

We definitely miss those who are already gone and the ones we haven't gotten to live by yet. 

In my perfect world, we will ALL live close enough to visit each other often, help out when needed, and share in all the fun memories of family. :)  Someday.

November moments

I love just the  normal, everyday shots i capture when the kids are just being cute or goofy. No poses, no big outing, just life. Someday I will be on top of things enough to post them as they come, but for now, here are November's everyday moments:

This boy is seriously THE.CUTEST. ever. I cannot get over how much we absolutely adore him, ALL of us.  

Where would we be without our Ryder-guy? 

He is such a good sleeper and loves to be on his tummy. He moves like crazy in his sleep (just like West) and is never where I put him:

Our Tave-man is LOVING preschool. Seriously, I cannot say that enough. He has SO MUCH fun with his friends and is thrilled when it's a preschool day.  Here are the kiddos eating their yummy treats from M's birthday:

My friend, Amanda, is awesome at posting every time she has preschool at her house. Me, not so great. But here is a letter I was proud of...I came up with the idea late the night before I had to teach when i realized I had to do a letter, the kids really liked it:

And our cute Thanksgiving pilgrims. I LOVE that Tave is so in to coloring now. He is so thorough and likes to use lots of colors of the rainbow:

A sweet moment.  We did a library trip and Weston was 'reading' the books to Tave:

After 3.5 years of wishing we had a light in the living room, Jeff made it happen. I am so IN LOVE with our ceiling light. I don't know how I lived in the darkness before!! Thanks, babe!!!!

It was Jeff's sleep in day and I couldn't find Tave anywhere. I finally looked in to see him sleeping by dad. 

I love moments like this:

Oh my adorable Ryder! He is growing much faster than I would like!!  

His new favorite thing is to climb in this chair with a book and just flip through the pages:

Ice Cream Cones - a rare treat!!  The boys have been earning ice cream when they stay in their beds ALL NIGHT.  (we have issues with them climbing in our bed when we're asleep, then Jeff and I wake up after not having slept so great, only to realize there are 4, FOUR, of us in the bed, ahhh!!)

Ryder thoroughly enjoyed his ice cream cone!!  

This is his new face when I pull out the camera, he is saying 'CHEESE':

Love these boys.

ps West is not in as many pics because he has decided he doesn't like them again. We'll see when he decided to show up. :)