Dazzling December

This busy month kept us moving and grooving as we attended some various activities.


First up was "Parents week" at the kids gymnastic school where they showed us their progress in all of their tumbling and climbing skills!




This year Tucker made it clear to the top of the gym, on the climbing rope! He was pretty pumped to show us how much he has improved.




Tracen tried to get in on all the action by trying out his own skills on the tumbling equipment.





Next up, was our homemade ginger bread house out of graham crackers. Everyday Tucker was asking when we were going to make ginger bread houses. Since I had not picked up our traditional kit at the store yet and I was tired of the nagging, I decided a nice after school project would be to break out the graham crackers. The boys had a good time and also decorated the kit I bought in later weeks. However, I forgot to snap of picture of the final projects.



Tate earned his "Arrow of Light" award from cub scouts, where he got to graduate from cub scouts and take the traditional walk across the bridge symbolic of him graduating into 11 year scouts. He also earned his "20 patch" which is an award stating that he passed off every section in the Weblow book. It was a lot of work, but I am glad that he was able to get everything done!





This year Tate & Tucker participated in the PTA reflections contest and did really well. Tucker won first place in the visual art category, while Tate won 2nd place in the photography area. They won both ribbons and cash for their 1st and 2nd place finishes.






Our brother in law, Micah, has been serving over in Afghanistan since July. We did not expect to see him until his R & R break in February. However, his brother died in December and so he was given a two week bereavement to come home. Even thought it was very sad about his brothers death, we were glad to experience at least a little bit of the holiday season with him. He had to go back on the 23rd, so we had a pre-Christmas dinner and got to watch the the BYU bowl game.



Sherlene and Micah's little boy Kaleb is about 9 months younger than Tracen, so they have a fun time when we all get together.



Tommy was especially excited to have his "buddy" Micah home, and tried to spend every minute with him.








Tucker was excited to finally loose one of his teeth that had been loose for ever.



I had many good intentions for the Christmas season. I wanted to have fun activities every night counting down to Christmas day. In reality we only did a few. One was this Christmas themed dinner where the pasta was shaped in a Christmas theme. I made homemade green & white breadsticks in the shape of candy canes, and we had some fun Christmas treats for dessert. So next year I will start earlier in the month and see if we can make some more Christmas memories.





Christmas morning was fun having the kids be so excited. The night before, Santa got caught red handed about 1:30 am, but the kids went right back to bed as the stocking had yet to be filled and we explained that Santa had left in a hurry over to the neighbors as they were not suppose to be out of bed yet. So we looked out the window and sure enough the neighbors front room lights were on. It was convincing enough for them to hop back into bed and give Santa a chance to finish the job.



The rule this year was to let Tracen wake up on his own. Then the kids could finally come and wake us up. So we were lucky enough to get to sleep in until 8:00 am that morning.



We have a house that is divided! Yes we have a BYU fan and a UTE fan living in the same house. They both got school T-shirts and footballs. They were each thrilled but thought it would be fun to have a rival picture.



Here is a few shots of Christmas with Jeff's family, and then I can't believe I forgot to take a single picture of our Gus gathering. My sis Annalee & hubby Steve go all out and have the most beautiful decorations. We had a great time with all!



You would think with the holiday break there would be no school activities, practices or games. That is not the case with High school sports. The freshman team played Box Elder and Tanner had a pretty good game, where their team won. I really need to get a camera with an optical zoom, as my digital zoom just doesn't cut it for sporting events.



Yes that is Tanner at the free throw line.



So, that is a wrap folks. Here's to 2010! It was a great year and we hope we are all healthy and happy in the years to come. Happy New Year!

Merry Christmas

We wanted to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New year!

Nice November

As the holidays are fast approaching, I have found myself once again behind in the blogging world. So, I thought I better catch up at least to November. Jeff felt the kids were deprived in October for not being able to carve pumpkins as the whole month flashed by us. So while I was out of town, he let them carve away! They had a great time and I was thrilled I didn't have to clean up the mess.



After such a crazy October I really needed to get away, so my annual sisters trip was perfect timing. The Gus girls try and get away once or twice a year to recharge our personal batteries. It is always a fun time with lots of chocolate, talk and just down time where you are only responsible for yourself! I remembered to take a picture this year! This is my sister Jennie, Mom Ann, sister Annalee, and of course me. My sister Julie is taking the picture and did not feel like being in the photo as she is expecting in 2011. My sisters in laws Cami and Kimi, had not arrived yet for the photo op.




November is also Tate's favorite month as he celebrated his 11th birthday! I loved his GQ poses over some of his birthday stash. He is growing up so fast and is almost as tall as I am. I can't believe he is in 5th grade! That is the same age that Tanner was when we made our big move to Box Elder County. Wow, time is starting to fly.



Speaking of Tanner, he had a great year in football and was awarded the offensive MVP player of the year. He played running back and then corner for the defense along with special teams. It was a real time consuming, tough, physical year for him but over all a great experience.




Next up was Tucker's health check up at PCMC for his heart, which included an echo and the regular tests. He is doing amazingly well! The doctors were please that his body has healed itself from past surgeries and that the heart valves that they were "watching" have really adapted to his body and they don't expect to see any problems in the near future. So, he doesn't have to have another PCMC check up for two years, plus no need for another echo for years to come!



Tommy lost a front tooth and the other one is hanging on by a thread. He was so excited that the tooth fairy would be coming to give him some money!



We were deeply saddened to have Jeff's niece, Crystal Burt, pass away from breast cancer in November. She was only in her 30's and leaves behind her husband and four children. She was such a good example with her positive and can do attitude. She just kept going no matter how hard it got. Her work put this up on their business sign out in West Haven. She will be deeply missed! Thank goodness we have the knowledge that we will see her again, free from cancer and pain, but until then there will always be a little sadness that she is not with us.



The rest of the pictures are from our photo shoot that didn't make our Christmas card, now I just have to try and get the cards out! What happened to the days that I had them out by the day after Thanksgiving? Oh yeah I didn't have five kids back then. I try to remember everything has it season and enjoy each moment as they are growing up so quick!