Ryder wins again!

It was that time of year again, time for the yearly Christmas coloring book contest in Preston. Ryder grabbed the coloring book out of my mom's paper and started coloring that day. He was so excited. He ended up coloring quite a few, but being a slaker of a mom that I am I spaced getting them handed out until the day before they were all due! So since we were behind I told him to pick out about four or five really good ones and we'd hand them in. So he did. He then got a call that he had been chosen and won at Preston Dental. For his prize he got a spinbrush toothbrush! Yep, a dentist gave the kids a toothbrush for their prize! :) A little on the nutso side I thought considering they usually do something fun for the kids. LOL It was good though and Ryder was happy because it was a lot cooler looking then his he said. Brooklyn had finally decided to color a few pictures but then got ticked one day because she said Ryder had more then her and ripped them all up. So needless to say she did not end up getting any done to hand in. She realized after Ryder had won that maybe next time she would not throw a fit and do good with them. We shall see how she feels next year. :)

Here is a picture of him and the others who won along with the dentist. Ryder loves to sit and color and I was glad he won! WAY TO GO RYDER!

Ryder's Christmas Program

This year Ryder's Preschool class went over to the nursing home and had a short program for Christmas. They sang some Christmas songs and those kids were great. What a good group of kids. Miss Mindy is their teacher and she does such a nice job with the kids; they sang their hearts out! Ryder is my shy boy believe it or not and Nils and I were so amazed he stood up there and sang! He sang all he knew and danced to the one he needed and did actions for the others. I was proud of my boy! :) I had my camera being really stupid though for some reason so I didn't get very good pictures. (That would be why everyone looks like they have alien eyes.) LOL
Here are a couple pictures of him & his class getting ready to sing.


These next few are just him and his class singing. They are doing actions to the songs and then the one they are singing Jingle Bells and shaking bells. Ryder thought that was neat.



It was fun to go watch and boy was I a proud mom. Yes, I know strange being so proud of him singing. Really for Ryder though to be up in front of people he gets nervous and shy so for him to sing was a step I was happy to see! He sang his little heart out and did so well!! Two thumbs up for Miss Mindy and the hard work she did to get the kids ready. It was a good little program.

Ward Christmas Party

We had our Ward Christmas party the first part of December, I just am slow at getting the pictures up from it. We had a dinner and then following the dinner we had a short program on the birth of Christ. It was a very good program!! Then of course Santa came! Ryder and Brooklyn were so excited for a few days for it and had been super good so they could see Santa. The minute Santa walked in and Ryder got a glance at him he ran and started hiding under whatever chair he could. He was not having any part of that for some reason. He litteraly was shaking and pretty much in tears when we asked if he wanted to go up and tell Santa what he wanted. It was just plain nuts. I am not sure what hit the poor boy. Brook, after seeing I think how Ryder was acting, decided no way too. She didn't want to go see him either and started to cry. We found some good friends of ours in the ward, the Austin's, and their little boy was waiting in line. Their little boy and Brook are in nursery together and are best buds so she said she'd go with them. She waited in line and became happy and excited. It was finally her turn and I could tell she was a bit nervous, but she did it! She told him that she wanted a dollhouse. I then sat Gavin on his lap to get a picture and Gavin decided to heck with it and screamed. What a night! I did capture a few quick pics though. Crazy kids any ways. :)
Here is Brooklyn excited now and ready to see Santa!

This is the one of Brooklyn staring down Santa & telling him she wanted him to bring her a dollhouse for Christmas.

And here is the one when I sat Gavin on Santa's lap. He was not a happy camper and wanted no part of that. LOL ;)

Overall they had fun though I think. Ryder did calm down after awhile and just looked from way back in the gym at Santa. :)

JAZZ GAME!

Last night we were able to go to the Jazz game and had such a blast. Nils got four free tickets from a friend who has season tickets and couldn't go. We took our friends Kory and Jennifer Kofoed with us. The seats were great and we had a good view of everything. The Jazz won which of course made it that much better too. It was a good game and was a total BLAST! I am grateful for my mom for taking my kids for us so we could go and for our friends going with us. I was very happy as well that the weather was in our favor and good! Nils and I always watch Jazz games on TV, but man in person it's fun. Here are the pics I was able to capture. Some are not the best quality but work. :)

Picture overload!

It has taken me a bit to update pictures of Gavin on here. Sorry. Life just becomes NUTS when you have three kids. I am still trying to adjust. LOL I finally decided to just do one big slideshow and put a bunch of updated pictures of life here lately. There are some of the kids and a lot of Gavin. He has grown so much. It's hard to believe he is already three months old! Man how time flies.I think Gavin is coming out of his colic issues or else I am just getting use to it more. :) He is a fun baby overall though and I love him to death. There are still times where he just wants to sit and scream, but we deal with it. Some days are better then others. Sometimes the other two kids will tell me to make him be quiet because it obviously gets on their nerves. I feel bad, but sometimes you just have to let them cry. I have grown to really learn that and get use to the fact that they are fine for a few minutes to just cry it out. Gavin usually just cries it out too and then is fine.
Enjoy all the pictures. There are a lot, sorry. I just wanted to do one post with all the pictures I had instead of a bunch indiviual ones. I have them all mixed around too, sorry. Enjoy though and see just how big my Gavin has gotten...and of course how cute all my kids are. :)

Halloween!

Well, it was that time of year again. Halloween time. It came up on me WAY too fast this year for some reason and I just couldn't get in the mood for it. I only got a few of my decorations out and just moaned about getting costumes this year. It was crazy how fast it seemed to come for me. The kids decided this year that they wanted to be something that matched. So we decided (finally) on doing Batman and Batgirl. They thought they were just neat as heck and loved it. I then had our little Gavin be a monkey and what a cute monkey he was. :) We didn't do much exciting, but we took the kids around trick or treating to a few friend's places and the grandparent's house. We didn't do the trunk or treat this year. I kind of got burned out of it and am not a huge fan of it. I miss the old way I guess and just can't get into the whole trunk or treat for some reason. We did a few fun things that day with the kids and then off we went trick or treating and I think they had fun. They said they did and Nils and I enjoyed seeing them all dressed up having fun. Ryder asked Nils and I if we'd dress up with them next year so maybe we just will. We will have to see. LOL
Here are pictures that we took before Gavin started screaming his head off. He wasn't much of a fan of his poofy, hot costume. The kids did all have fun though and it was neat even for the Halloween grinch, me. :)

Gavin's Baby Blessing

We finally got the chance to bless our little Gavin. What a great day it was! We blessed him on Sunday; 10-10-10. He was blessed by Nils and Nils did a very nice job and I really enjoyed it. In the circle we had Nils, Kevin, Uncle Cleve, Ed, Pat, and Diego. I had a hard time not having my Uncle Twayne there with us as he is usually to everything for us kids, but I did feel him there in spirit and I know with all my heart he was right in that prayer circle with his hands on Gavin! He wouldn't have missed it and I know it. My Aunt did come down though and she brought my cousin Taylor with her. It was great they still made the trip and I know it was rough on my Aunt too. We then had some of Nils' family there and some great friends came and supported us. My Aunt and Uncle from Soda also came over as well. We then had a luncheon up at the Fire station and leave it to me I forgot the camera so I have no pictures of the people who came. Overall, a stressful day and yet it turned out so good and we felt the spirit through little Gavin as he was blessed! We love him to death and am so glad his dad was able to bless him and give him his name. Thanks to all of you who came and supported us as it meant a lot and we missed those of you who couldn't make it. Here are the pictures I had time to get before we ran out the door to church. Imagine that....me running late. Never. LOL :)