Buckaroo's

 

Because of the glorious holiday we had Monday (Human Rights Day) and the fact that Payton was out of school, we tried to think of something fun to do that we don't usually get to do. We had two fun activities planned while our dad was in the freezing cold fishing through the ice. Payton of course woke up disappointed that his dad didn't wake him up and take him along, but Todd assured me he had talked to Payton about it the night before and had decided it would be too cold to take him.

After we got over the tears, had some breakfast, did a little laundry {very little} we made our plans...

We were going to borrow g-pa Turek's 4-wheeler and go for a ride and then we were going to meet up with Kandice around 4pm to ride her new horse, Mokey. The hard part about our plan was waiting until g-pa and g-ma Turek were out of the temple so we could ask to borrow the 4-wheeler.

We headed over to Washington and waited at g-pa and g-ma's house...and waited....and waited. They got home later than I expected but we enjoyed watching TV {since we don't have any TV other than the movies in our closet at our house}, jumping on the tramp, feeding the horses across the street, and just reading books and playing games.

By the time g-pa and g-ma got home we were able to spend about 20 minutes with them before Kandice called to let us know we could come down and ride the horse.

The kids were so excited to see the horse and actually ride it! Payton was the first to get on. I had forgotten my camera in the car so I ran really fast to get it while Kandice was leading Payton around on Mokey. When I got back, Payton was off the horse with one shoe on and one shoe off and he was crying. My first thought was that Payton had lost his shoe while riding and for some reason it made him feel bad so he was crying. I was soooo wrong. Apparently Mokey didn't like Payton on his back so he gave him a few bucks to remove him. Kandice said Payton held on really well because he didn't fall off until the fourth buck! When I talked to Payton about he said that he knew the reason he fell off was because he let go. When he let go he landed on his back and it knocked the air out of him. 

Dave was with us and had Payton get back on the horse {which is the pictures that I got of him--tears and all} and ride for a little bit. Payton was definitely ready to get off. All the other kids took their turn and then Payton was ready to get back on the horse...which I was glad. I didn't want him being scared of riding horses the rest of his life.

The rest of the riding went without any incident and the kids are ready to go ride again. Of course, I'm ready to let Dave train Mokey a little better before we get in a real riding session.

Christmas and New Years

Christmas Eve Jammies!

Can't have cookies without the milk

Payton kept adding more to the plate. Must have thought Santa really needed them...ALL!

Christmas Morning-Yup! It's the best picture I got!

It's not that Christmas and New Years wasn't worth blogging about. It's just that I haven't felt much like blogging about it...yet. I didn't take a ton of pictures on Christmas Day but we covered Christmas Eve pretty well. After our dinner of steak and eggs {which the kids hated and mom and dad loved!} we cleaned things up and got ready to have a special "night before Christmas" moment together. We talked about the real meaning of Christmas, which Payton seems to get {yeah!} and then we watched a DVD about the Nativity. After that we decided to make some cookies for Santa. While we were making them we had a knock at the door and a secret present was delivered. Inside were PJ's for the kids and a movie to watch, "How the Grinch Stole Christmas". We finished the cookies, the movie and getting things ready for Santa {and his reindeer} and then it was off to bed. I had a few presents I still needed to wrap and Payton could hear me in the other room. He kept saying, "You have to go to bed, mom! Santa won't come if you're awake."

Christmas was pretty simple this year. Nothing too hard for Santa to bring. In fact, Santa kinda fell asleep and Mrs. Clause had to pinch hit this year. Luckily there wasn't anything that needed assembly. The kids did pretty well, only coming in to wake us up around 7am. 30 minutes later, Christmas was over, breakfast was started and the day had begun. The rest is history.

New Year's Eve was spent at G-pa & G-ma Turek's house. Todd stayed home with Julia and I took two of Tiff's boys with us. Tiffani had her baby so she was going to spend the night at home {for very good reason}. We didn't really do much but play the wii. I am totally regretting the fact that not picture was taken while the boys hula hooped, threw snowballs, flew like birds...and everything else Aunt Kandice made them do. Then at midnight we did the pots and pans thing, came back inside {because it was FREEZING!} and the younger kids went back to the Wii while the bigger kids played the "What if" game. Then we called it a night and the start of a new year.

Ready to bang pots and pans

 Tiff had her baby {#5-yup! She's nuts!} on December 30th. Her name is Alaina and she's the cutest little thing! I love snuggling with her, when I get the chance. Even Julia enjoyed holding her. Too bad little Laini didn't agree.