Shooting

Ok, don't judge me for letting my 2 year old go shooting. I gave the boys a lecture on safety before they left and sent them on their way. (I was a little desperate for a break) Zeke absolutely LOVED shooting. Bethany shot first and after each shot she took, Zeke would yell "Bam". After a couple turns he got too cold and sat in the car all bundled up in blankets.

Christmas

We spent Christmas this year with my family in Idaho. We had tons of fun and time sped by.

My sisters are cuties aren't they.

We sold our car while we were there. It didn't pass it's Safety test and it cost more to fix it than it was worth so we took it to Idaho where there are no tests and sold it there. What a pain!! Luckily we have since gotten a new car.

Just a cute pictures of Nana and Porter. That boy got SOOO spoiled while we were in Idaho.

I wasn't sure if getting Zeke swords for Christmas was a good idea or not, but he LOVED them so much it made it all worth it.

Riding his new bike. Now he just needs to figure out how to use the pedals.

Toby got a new drill and saw for Christmas. So if any of you have any handyman projects you need help with... you know who to call.

This is how I decided to wrap up Zeke's swords. It didn't work. He knew exactly what they were the minute he touched them.

Thanks Nana and Popi for this awesome firetruck. Zeke loves it!

We also enjoyed other activities such as making graham cracker houses with our cousins the Robinsons, playing Speedball (a very fun game that is a mix between basketball, soccer and ultimate Frisbee), and our annual auction.

A new game we played this year is Deal or No Deal.

Guess who won? ME!!!

That's right, I picked the $10 envelope and made it all the way to the last 2 envelopes and chose to keep the one I originally chose. Yep that's right. I RULE!!!!

Sharing a room

Last night I put the boys to bed at the same time in the SAME room.

GASP

It was an extremely brave thing to do. How did it go? I was in their room about 7 times during the night. None of which were the cause of the other one crying or waking each other up however. Last night just happened to be the night that Zeke pooped in his sleep. Seriously... he hasn't done that in like a year. That was all I saw of Zeke last night. He even slept through the other six times that Porter decided to scream his head off. What is his deal?! I may have to live with the pack n play in my kitchen for a little bit longer until we figure out how to get Porter to sleep better.

(I am working on updating so be prepared for lots of pictures of Christmas)

Christmas Cookies

To get into the holiday spirit a little more we made sugar cookies for Family Home Evening this week.

Zeke's favorite part was putting on the sprinkles.

Porter's Baby Blessing

We blessed this darling boy last Sunday at church. I hear he just stared at Toby during the entire blessing. It was a beautiful blessing and Porter had lots of family there.

Thanksgiving

For Thanksgiving this year we drove to Reno to Kristel and Lance's house. We survived the 8 hour car drive with 5 people squished into our car and arrived ready to play. If you know Kristel, you'll know that a schedule of events was already planned with no time to waste.

Events not pictured or are on Kristel's camera and I don't have copies yet are:
GPS race
miniature golf
sealing session at the temple
floor hockey
shopping
building a retaining wall
name that tune singing challenge
shuffle board

Now for the pictures:

This is a made up game that I'm not sure how to describe

Cooking Thanksgiving dinner

I almost forgot to put Porter in his first Thanksgiving shirt

Playing at the park

Kickball croquet

Toby was the winner... no surprise there

Grandma trying to keep Zeke warm

The kids fought over who got to play with Grandma's i-touch

Horseshoes. By the way don't ever pick me for your team... I'm horrible!

Drawing with chalk

You really need to check out Dad Lander's face on this one so click on it to make it bigger.

Zeke only got naps in the car so one time I stayed outside with him so he could get a little more sleep.

Isn't this the cutest picture of Porter?

We played lots of games at night.

Kristel had a few questions that she sent us ahead of time that we were to share our answers during our stay. Each day we talked about one of the questions and had some really good family discussions/bonding time.

Easter Egg Hunt. I know it's the wrong holiday, but we loved it anyway! The kids had a hunt first and opened their eggs to find candy and money from Grandma and Grandpa.

Then it was time for the older kids to have their Egg Hunt. We each hid a certain color and then were assigned to find another color. After time passed we were allowed to find any egg. There were also 3 golden eggs with money in them. Toby found one and I found the other 2. Yay for us!

Grandma was in charge of the babies while we played. She certainly had her hands full.

And by the end I think this guy was ready to go. He struggled playing nicely with his cousins and had some tough moments. That and missing some naps was hard on him. Although when we got home all he could talk about was when Alyssa and Isaac were going to come over. Kids are funny!

Family Fun

So I've gotten a little behind in my blogging. These pictures are from the first week in November. Mom Lander came up to take care of Aunt Janene after her foot surgery and Kristel came with her family because Lance had a conference in Salt Lake. While they were here we celebrated Lance's birthday, went to the park, played games at Robin and Janene's house, had a big cousin get together and just enjoyed being together.