The Last Injury

Well it's the end of the year, time for our health insurance deductible to start over in January. So of course we waste $ on one last emergency Instacare visit. On the 29th Rafe was messing around and climbing up on the couch and was accidently pushed by Creed and fell off and hit his head on the edge of our ottoman leg. And Rafe had a big bloody deep gash in his head. It required 6 staples. Although, I think the Dr. could have done a better job and not used as many or tried stitches. But I guess hair was in the way, blah, blah. Sorry if the picture is too gross and bloody. I waited for a few washings in hopes the blood and hair would wash away, but I need to get this post done so I can send the blog to the printers. :)

 

 

Jax accompanied Rafe and I to the Dr. Jax is squeamish so he sat back and didn't watch. I was glad I didn't have to watch and could face Rafe and hold his hands. Rafe got a ninja wrap to keep some gauze on the back of his head to numb his wound. He was happy for a few minutes.

 Poor guy, he can't lay on the back of his head. The worst spot to have a cut and staples. And he's been battling a horrible nasty cough as well. Off to a good start for January. (even though this is dated Dec.) All the boys in the house have had some sort of a cough. I'm the only one whose stayed healthy. Knock on wood. Rafe is our trooper. When he's not screaming, coughing his death cough, or endlessly whining because he's so tired and in pain. Then all the boys being home all day everyday. Ugh. I NEED to get away! Has school started back yet? Nope.

Let's hope it's a happy and great 2014! -And HEALTHY!

Our Christmas 2013

 We had such a nice Christmas. A certain grown man is quite sad it's over. The boys sure enjoyed opening presents. Of course. We spent Christmas Eve at Greg's parents in Alpine. I don't have any pictures of that. But it was fun.

 

Christmas morning Jax woke up at 7am and so we had to get the rest of the boys up. I felt bad waking them up. But it was time, right?
 

Start of the day...

 

 

I love Rafe opening this present. His most favorite gift that he plays with all day everyday. (Thomas the Train castle track thing) He starts out ripping, throwing the paper behind him, then moves to his knees to get at it better. He was quite aggressive. He could see the picture and couldn't get into it fast enough. So much fun with little kids.

 

 

A few group huddles over some toys. Nothing like a classic Hungry, Hungry Hippos.

 

Middle of the day...

 

I always like to take a picture with all the boys sitting in the wrapping paper mess before we clean up. We had both my parents and Greg's come out to visit, I took a short much needed nap. And we all stayed in our PJ's all day long. Except Rafe, for some reason he insisted he gets clothes on.

 

 

End of the day...

 

Oh my word, video games all day and up to bedtime. And Greg's fire he built days before lasted till the evening and then we were out of wood. Shucks! I'm not a fan of the work, smell, and cold that goes into a real fireplace fire. I can sniff a campfire in my living room, the bedrooms are cold because the heater doesn't come on and poor Greg has a lot of work to do a fire. :) But it looks nice. And I do like it for about 5 minutes.

 

 

The day after...
 

Day number 2 of the boys in their PJ's all day. It was another relaxing day with nothing to do but play. More video games. They are obsessed with playing Minecraft. All 3 of the older boys can play on the PlayStation and there's no fighting because they all have their own land/screen.

In this picture, I had just filmed Jax and Creed singing their French X-mas song. They all lined up and were being silly. And most of our fruit you see on the counter is now gone.

 

2 days after...
 

I did make them get dressed finally and go out side for 15minutes and ride scooters. Bodie and Creed each received a bigger one for Christmas. And then we had some Williamsen cousins over for a sleepover. And I forgot to take pictures of that.

 

It's been a fun filled Christmas break so far.

All the Stuff

We've been busy doing all the stuff to get ready for Christmas. Ready or not... Christmas is coming!

I really wish I just had 2 more days to get ready and to be able to watch some Christmas movies and sit and listen to music and maybe have some people over to enjoy the spirit of the season. We are out of time.

 

Well on the 19th when we had one of the big snow storms we went to Jax's Dance performance they do every year at his school. It's with Tanner Dance Co. He had fun. I liked his class the best. They've been learning about spiders in his class so they did a spider dance mixed with Native American. Pretty cool.  I like that they get to learn modern interpretive dance. Well learning any dance. It's fun. Creed gets his turn the last half of the year.

The boys came home from school for the school break on Thursday (I don't know why the don't go on Friday like everyone else?) and they had learned several "funny" versions of the famous Christmas songs. Why can't my boys memorize and learn the real songs as well as the spoofs?

 

 

Saturday morning we went to our church ward breakfast x-mas party. It was fun and yummy. They had a fun little skit and some songs. And we all sang 2 songs. "Here Comes Santa Claus" and "Silent Night". And man, what is wrong with me? I actually got all teary during both songs. I must have a little Christmas Spirit hitting me. It was cool décor, like a winter wonderland.

And we went sledding one night. It was fun. Rafe only went down about 3 times but thought it was great watching his brothers and love wearing his "boops" -boots. And Creed seemed to wipe out every time. Bodie liked only going half way up the big hill and down again.

 

On Sunday we had my family Christmas party at my parents house. It was a fun time. The boys LOVED their gifts from grandma. She made all the grandkids blankets. What a hit, who knew? They love their fleece with a crocheted edge.

 

Tepanyaki

I think we've started a new tradition with our family for Christmas time. Not that it has anything to do with Christmas. But we like to have a nice dinner out during the holidays to make it nice and special to celebrate this time of year. And we've found a winner of a place! Greg and I loved seeing the delight in our boys. They still talk about it and couldn't get over how "awesome" it was. Having your chef grill your food right in front of you, with flames and fast chopping. It was really neat. It was a slow night, a big snow storm out made a great atmosphere.

 

Too bad the pictures are all so blurry.

 

 

Here's a few as the chef was throwing a piece of meat, well shrimp in the boys mouth. It was hilarious. They all tried it. With their eyes closed of course and food flying at their face. So the food would hit them and bounce off. They laughed and thought it was best. Flying food?!

 

Such a fun time. So glad we did it.

Pilgrim

In November Jax had to do a report about and make a family Pilgrim/Pioneer of an ancestor who came to America or Utah. So he chose his name sake, Vincenzo Lorenzon. He was so proud of his art work, back in the late 1800's and turn of the century men used to wear dark suits and top hats. And he even had a little picture of an ancestral home in Italy, (I've mentioned Poffabro before in Jan. 2009)  the class loved that and all wanted to see it. He's the only one that passed his around. We were both proud. So I had to share. :)

Jax is 9

Jax had his birthday. And he loved it. He insists on having his presents under the tree waiting for him. So we quickly put them under and he pulled them out. Then he divided them out to have his brothers help open them all. What?! Creed helped Rafe open one, and Jax did just one, and Bodie was able to do one - the main one. And he wasn't really surprised by any of it. He picked out the books he wanted. And he asked and assumed he'd get his cash he wanted and then he also knew he'd get an ipod (my old iphone). But I did surprise him with one thing. Anyways, how nice of him to share the thrill of opening presents with all of his brothers. I know the 2 little ones really appreciated it. I think he got the idea from Creed a few weeks ago. Maybe a new tradition is starting with that?

 

So the picture isn't the best, they are all scattered around. But I had to share the picture of them all opening Jax's presents.

 

 

I love this picture of the boys checking out Jax's apps.

 

 

He had a good day at school. It was also his Superstar week for his class, so he took 2 sets of treats that week and on Friday we had to have an activity for the students in class. So we made giant snowflakes. It was a success. They all loved it. It was work for me cutting all the 28" squares, and there was a lot of clippings to clean up off the floor, I don't think his teacher liked that. But oh well. It was fun.

Back to his birthday. We invited my family and Greg's family to see the lights at Temple Sq. only some of Greg's family was able to come. Jax thought it was great to do an activity like that for his B-day.

 Happy boy on his Birthday.

 

 Then after the lights, we all went to Training Table for dinner and cake to celebrate. My parents drove out to meet us for cake. I am proud of my "artwork" on his cake. He is really into the "Diary of a Wimpy Kid" books and wanted that for his cake. And voila! The second picture is Rafe helping him blow out the candles. And brothers and cousins watching him open presents.

 

Jax loves getting older. He is so excited to be going into Bears at cub scouts now. He totally feels like a big kid with his iPod. He loves the music and has watched the movies on it. I still can't believe we let him have one already. He also feels older because we let him watch the Lord of the Rings Trilogy and he hasn't been scared at night since seeing the movies, so he's brave now. Ha! We'll see. I did try and watch with him and "edited" out a few parts that I could remember. He continues to make his littlest brothers scream by pestering them. He loves to wrestle with Creed, until someone gets hurt. His favorite food is pizza, he loves chocolate and he is always trying to ask to be able to play with a friend. He is a stud!

 

 Now if I can just get him to please cut his hair. Jax and Creed are growing it out. I hate it and tell them everyday I think they look like a shaggy dog. But their dad wants them to try it. Ugh!

Lights, Camera...

The night before the cold storm and freezing temperatures we went downtown to see the lights on Temple Square. It's a fun tradition. And it's always crowded and really cold. But this year was different. It was warm jacket weather and we were early enough in the evening it wasn't crowded. It was so great! I think Rafe was more excited seeing the Trax train more than the lights. It was a good year too. Some years the lights are ok and other years they do more and it looks incredible. This year it's incredible. I'm so glad we have it done. Some of Greg's family joined and we all went around together.

 

Here's the info on my pictures this year.

One without a flash and I had to try and expose it better to see the boys faces. They look super imposed or something. Then the second picture is with the flash. The lights don't look as glowy but we can see the boys clearly.

 

 The giant red tree that I love. And then I was zooming while I took a picture of it. Then I love the walkway with all the lights. Notice how it's not crowded with people. And our family. I don't know why Greg is wearing a hat. It was nice.

 

 This is my favorite picture I took. It shows the pink roses in the foreground, then lighted green bushes, trees and I love the lantern posts and the Nauvoo bell. And leaves on the trees.

 

And this kiddo turned 9!! He had a fun evening with the lights and more celebrating later.