Weekend Road Trip

I got a call from my sister Susan looking for someone to help watch her kids for a few weeks. After talking with John we decided to come to her aid and we planed a road trip to pick up my nice and nephew.  Nick was away for training and Susan had a busy few weeks of school projects so are going to take Susan's 2 kids home with us for a few weeks. Kindly a friend in our Ward took Zach and Katie for the weekend so we only had Aaron in the car for our 13 hour ride to KY.

 We left very early in the morning and drove through the night and just as the sun came up we stopped at Cracker Barrel for breakfast.  It was a nice break from sitting in the car and Aaron had a fun playing the peg game at the table.

 

                         (Kaelyn 7m, Aaron 7, Franklin, Jack 15m, and William 2)
 We made one more stop for lunch before we made it to Susan's house.  My older brother Frank and his family were in TN that weekend so they decided to make the trip and met us at Susan's as well since it has been years since we have seen each  other. Shortly after we arrived Frank's family arrived and it was a wonderful afternoon visiting and watching the cousins play together.

This was the first time we met my brothers twin boys who are just over a year old and they really took to Aaron and the boys had fun playing together. At bed time Aaron went to lay down and watch a movie on the iPad when Jack decided he wanted to watch with him so he climbed up and sat with Aaron for a while.

Franklin noticed the fun his brother was having so he joined in the fun and climbed up and took his turn hanging out with Aaron.

After an evening of visiting together we all got up early and had a nice breakfast together, then we packed up the car and got ready to head home. We had a busy 24 hours at Susan's house but it was fun to spend time with both my brother and sister at the same time.  We put the kids in the car and Susan said a sad goodbye to her kids and we headed home.

Oh That Crazy Church Ball

John along with some of the other men and young men in the Ward have been meeting Saturday morning to play basketball.  Zach being one of the youngest to play works really hard when he gets his turn on the court. Its just a fun pick up game but we all know how guys are and sometimes they get excited and get lost in the game.

 Someone tripped and ended up landing on top of Zach.  He came out of the pile with his face all swollen.  He got lucky and nothing was broken but his poor cheek stayed swollen for quite some time.

These are pictures from a week later and its still pretty swollen and he now has a nice black and blue and green bruise under his eye.  He is one tough kid and hardly complained about it.  He even showed up to his basketball game a few days later and played an awesome game. 

Basketball Season Begins

Both Zach and Aaron are playing basketball this year.  Aaron most of all couldn't wait to start playing.

 Aaron is playing with the first and second graders which is a great fit for him as this is his first time playing.  He is on a team but as of right now they are just learning the basics and only has practices.

 

Zach is having fun playing so far and his team won their first game 18-15 and he played really well.  We are excited to what both of our boys grow as the season goes on.  I'm just happy to be able to sit inside and watch them play and not have to be on the cold bleachers for a change.

Christmas Day

The kids woke up and got us all out of bed ready to open gifts together.

 It was a mad dash to get the gifts open that were in her there stockings.

 Katie got a girl hippo to go with her family of hippos.  She named her Bella.

 Zach got his long asked for pair of roller blades.

 Aaron got his long awaited Captain America gear. He looks so cool.

 We had a breakfast of cinnamon rolls yummy, yummy!!

 Zach also got the game of Simon and we all spent lots of time playing together.

 Aaron got a monkey blanket from Grandma Webb and he walked around with it all day.

 We had a wonderful Christmas dinner together with lots of good food.

The boys both got legos so they spent the evening putting together their new cars and helping each other.  We had a wonderful Christmas together playing with everyones new toys.  Wishing everyone a very Merry Christmas.

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve was spent with us at home spending our evening together. John had to work so we finished up our cookies and made some pizza for dinner.

 We watched a few Christmas specials and then it was time to head to bed.  The kids get one gift to open and its always PJ's.

 They all look so good in new clothes and ready for the big day tomorrow.

 Zach was kind enough to read the night before Christmas to us another family tradition I have carried on.

 Zach was even nice enough to show us the pictures.

 Katie put the cookies out for Santa.

Aaron got the cup of milk out and we were ready to turn in for the night and wait for the sun to come up on Christmas morning.  Merry Christmas Eve!!!

Chritmas Cookies

One of our traditions that we have continued from when I was a kid is making Christmas sugar cookies and this year we were a little behind but we made sure that we have plenty of cookies to eat on Christmas day.

 

 

 The kids did a good job helping me roll out the dough and cutting the cookies with the cookie cutters.

 They each got to decorate a bunch of cookies any way they wanted and they had a blast doing it.

 

They all worked hard and the cookies came out really good.

It was a fun afternoon and I love watching all the different ways each of them decorate their own cookies.  We were able to make so many cookies that we made a couple of plates for our neighbors to share our yummy goodies with them.

Ward Christmas Party

We had our Ward Christmas party and after a nice dinner the kids put on a program and all 3 of our kids had a part in it.

 

 They acted out the Littlest Angel, Zach and Katie were one of the angels in the story. They also sang a couple songs.

The younger kids acted out the Nativity and Aaron chose to be a cow in the scene. They ended with all the kids singing a song together.  It was a fun night and all the kids did a good job with their parts.