And a Happy New Year.

So we've been back at home and started getting back into a routine. Here's a summary of each member of our family.

Tj- He stays busy with work. He just turned 33 earlier this month. He's now 6' and weighs 165 lbs. He keeps us busy with his whole healthy lifestyle. Did I mention that he stays busy with work?!

Manda- It seems like time keeps rolling. I stay busy with house keeping (less of a priority), volunteering in Joel's school class, volunteering with the PTA and school foundation, arranging play dates, crafting, planning and overseeing the elementary school yearbook, helping with kids with homework, teaching sunday school at church, and basically being the social committee for our family. I hit the big 3-0 this year and celebrated by driving from Salt Lake to St. George, UT. (Although it was nice to be heading home!) Once I got home my friend and I went to see Wicked. Happy Birthday to me!!!!! (Thanks Jonelle!)

Joel- Went back to school and is doing amazing. He enjoys reading, math and running away from the girls for his life. :) He is a good friend to all his classmates. I love watching him interact with his classmates and in his own environment at school. I get to be in the class about once a week and it's so great to see what he's doing at school and be part of his class community. It's amazing to see him getting so grown up and maturing. I'm always so impressed with his reasoning and watching him write and read. It's especially fun to watch him play video games on the Leapster Explorer. I'm so surprised how much he knows and how he can manipulate it. He's also still the quite the songbird. Nama taught him about harmony and so he likes to listen to the radio and harmonize. He is also quite the Jenga master. I'm really excited for him since he's getting to an age and stage where he can be my game partner.

Vance- He's my sweet and tart little guy. He's my snuggle buddy and loves to snuggle up with me anytime I'm sitting still. He's my sweet guy who loves to give me kisses and hugs as surprises and tells me all the time how much he loves me. He loves to wrestle with daddy and Joel. He's also our stubborn little boy. Man that little boy is as spicy and fiesty as he is sweet. And he is so smart! Quite the firecracker we have on our hands. My biggest struggle is how to mother him without breaking him. There are some days when he pushes me to my limits but man do I love him! It's going to be the adventure seeing him grow up. But I hope he'll always be my buddy. He's my partner and loves to be with me. I try and remember there are days when I'll wish to have these days back.

So that's us. I'm going to try and keep this blog up without the help of not so subtle reminders. :)

December in Idaho 2011 edition part deux.

Part two of the pictures. Again in no particular order.

The boys near the Snake River Canyon.

Vance hanging out in the snow.

The boys in their Christmas clothes.

Joel, Vance and Rian (Kandice's daughter).

Vance and Carter (Kandice's youngest).

Kandice, Tj and Stacey.
(Cousins)

December in Idaho 2011 edition.

We spent Christmas in Idaho. We were hoping for snow and Tom, Cindy and Tj were hoping to teach the boys to ski (I was looking forward to spending some quality time in the lodge with hot chocolate). Unfortunately, the weather wasn't working in our favor. Luckily, we still had a good time with family even if it was without snow.

So in no particular order here are photos from our weeks in Idaho.

Mommy and her silly boys.

We went and found snow one weekend.
Here's Jay, me and Bergen.

Vance and Joel with their swords from Nama and Pa.
(No not Christmas, just a gift from Grandpa Clause.)

We had a little get together one night with family
and some friends. Here are all the kids at the party.

Vance, Joel, Bergen and Traye
before the attack. :)

Jesse, Jeremy, Kaden, Joel and Vance
at the lights in the South Hills.

Tom with all the kids at Chicago Connection.
(Trip 1 of 4)

The boys trying on their snow gear.
(Notice the lack of snow.)

The boys and Pa getting hot chocolate Christmas Eve
while looking at Christmas lights.

The boys with Uncle Dennis on his golf cart.

testing....Testing....TESTING

Don't you hate it when you're blog surfing and people haven't updated their blogs in months and you're left sitting in front of your monitor thinking, "What the heck is wrong with these people?!" and then you realize it's your blog? Oh, maybe it's just me.

But really I can't believe it's been three months since I've updated my blog. So here's a brief rundown of what we've been up to.

As mentioned in my last post Tj's parents came to visit us in October. We did lots of fun things with them including going to the pumpkin patch. They also got to be here for our church's children's program called the Primary Sacrament Meeting Program which is a culmination of all the things they've learned in Primary throughout the year.

The boys at the Pumpkin Patch.

The family among the pumpkins.

Pa and a Scary Scarecrow.

We celebrated Halloween with both of the boys having parties at their school and being able to wear their costumes to school. The boys got TONS of use out of their costumes this year because we also went to our church's Halloween party (haven I blogged about that already?!). We also went trick or treating and got WAY too much candy. This year we were introduced to the Switch Witch which trades all the kids' Halloween candy for a toy. The candy then was taken to work with daddy. :)

Vance (Captain America there on the left) during
his class performance.

Joel at his class party.

Vance with his friends Camden and Matthew
at the church party.

The boys during the costume parade at the church.

Thanksgiving was a quiet affair around here. We stayed in California and had dinner with some friends of ours around here. (I know I took a few pictures from Thanksgiving but I don't know where I stored them.)

We took a field trip with some of our friends to the Natural History Museum in November which was really fun. The boys had SO much fun together and Vance LOVED showing Joel around the museum.

December was a CRAZY month for our family. Between class parties, volunteering in Joel's class, Christmas parties, etc. we were busy! Unfortunately, I not only was on a blogging hiatus but also a photo taking hiatus. So I have very few pictures from December.


The boys decorating cookies with our friends the Bouches.

Vance and Braden decorating cookies.

Joel and Alyssa getting ready to decorate.

Joel and Santa's helper at the church party.

The boys with Santa's helper.

Vance and Santa's helper.

While we tried to remind the boys the true meaning of the Christmas season I thought this was cute. The boys combing the toy catalog together.

Another funny thing that happened this Christmas season happened with the Little People Nativity. I always keep it down where the boys can play with it and act out the nativity. Tj and I found it a bit hilarious (and a bit blasphemous) when the boys would begin acting like the wise men and the animals were the bad guys and then baby Jesus the Super Hero would fly in and save the day. Man, I love those kids.

The end of December was super busy. We drove out to Idaho the Thursday before Christmas ALL night long. We were then able to stay for awhile and visit family. (More about that later.)

We rung in the New Year there in Idaho. And that pretty much brings us up to the end of the year.