Bryce's 2nd Birthday

On the 7th, we celebrated Bryce's 2nd birthday. I always like to reflect back over the life of the birthday child to see how much they have grown.

Here is Bryce at birth right before they put all the tubes and monitors on him after he was born. He was 4 lbs 6 oz and 17 1/2 inches. At his 21 month check up he was 28 lbs and 35 inches. He has doubled his height and is 8 times more what he was at birth. I think it's safe to say he has made some good growth since birth.

Here is Bryce on his first birthday right before he stuffed his face with cake.

His face has slimmed down some but he still has his chunky cheeks. Who couldn't love this little face? Bryce loves pancakes so for his birthday breakfast he got his favorite meal. Unfortunately we didn't have any exciting plans for the day but we did take advantage of the good weather and did Bryce's favorite thing: play out side. We played at the play ground for awhile.

After we had dinner, we had the cake and opened presents. To say Bryce loves balls is a bit of an understatement. We can't go any where without him finding a ball or stealing someone else's ball. He especially loves basketballs so naturally we had basketball cake. He was mesmerized by the flames of the candle to the point he wouldn't blow them out.

After cake we opened a few presents.

Testing to see what can fit in his ear.

Bryce also loves fire trucks and I love the noise he makes for fire trucks. He is such an entertaining kid and keeps us laughing. We call him the class clown because he just so silly. He has the energy for two two year olds so he wears us out but his cheesy smile makes it worth it all. We just love this little guy. 

Happy Birthday to our Bubba.

The Highlights from January and February

Jackson passed both his school and pediatrician eye screening so when he said to me that his eyes were bothering him, I figured that he just wanted glasses because he is always messing with mine and John-David's. After several months of nagging to us that his eyes hurt on some occasions, we had Jackson's eyes checked at an actual eye place. Turns out the kid has astigmatism (like his mother) and is slightly near sided. Now when he is at school or reads, he wears glasses. I think he looks pretty sharp in them if I do say so myself.

Bryce wanted to be like Jackson and so he had his

own picture taken with him wearing glasses.

He looks like my dad as a kid wearing glasses.

Jackson's pack has their annual Pine Wood Derby. We followed all the rules that we given because this was our first year doing this, to only discover that very few people followed the rules because they don't care about moving on to district. There were some very fancy and funny cars and although they could race for fun their times didn't count. The problem with that is that a 7 year old boy doesn't quite understand why the car that didn't follow instructions was going faster than his. Now we know for next time.

Jackson with his "Bumblebee"car at the track.

We have really been encouraging Kelsey to practice her name and her letters. Her "e"s sometimes get flipped upside down and look like "g"s but she is going have this down soon. Her goal is to practice her alphabet flash cards each day. She knows all the sounds of the letters but she doesn't recognize all the letters. She has been really good at practicing them each day and gets so excited when she gets them right. She would be great game show contestant.

Just sharing some chocolaty brotherly love.

Jackson's boy scout troop got discount tickets to go to the Harlem Globe Trotters. Dad took the two oldest to the event and they had a great time. As you can see the place wasn't very large so they were able to see pretty well.

Since we have Jocey's happy face right here I will give her Girl Scouts update. I don't know that I have ever commented on her doing Girl Scouts because her troop well doesn't do anything. To make a long story short, I recently transfered her to a new troop that one of the mom's of her friends started. She has been to two meetings now and has done more in those two meeting than she has done in the last 5 months in the other troop. I will post a picture in her new smock with her badges soon. She did participate in selling Girl Scout cookies and we are happy to report her dad sold 48 boxes. He took it to work and let the cookies sell themselves. That is mine kind of selling. Who couldn't just love this face? This kid is the busiest little boy but he keeps us laughing despite all his antics and messes he makes. Just today he said, "I wuv you mommy". If that doesn't melt your heart I don't know what will. He is such a character and everyone loves him. He has his nursery leader and the babysitter at the gym wrapped around his little finger. They can't resist his round little face. Kelsey just completed a 5 week swim class. She has never taken lessons so this was all new to her. Some of the things she learned was how to jump in the water, float on her back with assistance, and most importantly get her face wet. She rarely would go under the water when we went to the pool last summer but now she puts her face in the water and lays on her back in the bath. She needs another round of lessons but she is improving. Jackson can't go long without his sports so when soccer season wrapped up, a few weeks later he was on to basketball. The season was long but I think he really improved over the course of the past few months. He had a lot of energy and was really good at rebounding the ball and getting it down the court. He was able to make a few baskets but he never achieved his goal of making a "dunkit". Maybe next season. Now that basketball is over he'll take a month break and then to baseball.

His goal is to go to BYU and be the next Jimmer Fredette.

He now wants to watch the "Sacrament" Kings to see him play.

Five of the fearsome Bengals.

He had a really good group of team mates who were all great kids to play basketball with.

Jocelyn's 6th Birthday

It takes me awhile to get caught up after Christmas and unfortunately that means it takes awhile for me to post about Jocelyn's birthday. Her birthday was on the 27th of December, so we decided to celebrate both kids birthdays by going bowling on the 26th.

Her is our sweet Jocey. She is growing up so fast(literally too). She loves school and is doing very well. Dance is still one of her main loves and this year she is able to participate in her end of the year recital because it's not on a Sunday. She is a big help and has a beautiful smile that brings a smile to my face. Happy Birthday to our sweet girl! Bowling was probably not the best activity to have Bryce engage in. This boy has an obsession for balls and a bowling alley has a lot of balls. He was constantly trying to pick up and throw the bowling balls, he even threw one down someone else's lane.

Last year Jackson requested breakfast in bed and now that seems to be the tradition for the two oldest. Her happy Bossy face with her birthday crown from school. Since we went bowling the day before and we had a party planned for her later, we didn't really have many birthday festivities planned. I did invite over a friend for her so the day would be more exciting. I guess that's the downside to having a birthday right after Christmas.

We waited for dad to come home from work before we opened presents. She got a new bedspread.

She got a barbie chef set. She keeps asking for Barbie stuff but she doesn't really play with it.

Made she just wants to be a collector some day. 

She wanted a Razor scooter.

Her birthday cupcake.

This picture I just added because these kids are all nuts.

They wanted their picture taken together.

Although Bryce looks naked, he does have a diaper on.

We originally planned on Jocelyn's party to be in January but because of scheduling issues it got pushed back to the 11th of February. I think that it worked out well in the end. She had a hard time deciding on a theme so it became sort of a favorite things/pampering party. Since it was around Valentine's we used this to our advantage and went with heart decorations. When the girls got there they made a bookmark because Jocey loves to read. Then we tied material on flip-flops to decorate them to wear after they got their toe nails painted. For the next activity we broke them into two groups. John-David had one group make bath salts and I painted nails of the other group. For our final activity I had the girls clean faces with sea breeze, put cucumbers on their eyes and covered them with warm towels from the dryer. I think the favorite thing of all the girls was the chocolate fountain! We decided to do that instead of traditional cake and I think it was a good choice. Unfortunately, we were so busy we only got a handful of pictures but I think the ones we got were pretty cute.

Tying the flip-flops

The girls really concentrated on them.

Every time we eat cucumbers now, Jocey puts them on her eyes first.

They were pretty well covered in chocolate, but it was well worth it.

It was a fun party to put on and she had some cute friends to help her enjoy it!

2011 Christmas

I am finally getting to a post about the Christmas season which I am just posting a few of the highlight pictures. Our camera seems to be struggling lately and the pictures are coming out fuzzy and blurred. I guess that makes choosing pictures for posting easier. :)

On the Friday night after Thanksgiving, our little town has a tree lighting or in reality a bush lighting since the tree got cut down two years ago. After the lighting, Santa comes down the street on a fire engine and then you can wait in a really long line to sit on Santa's lap. We have never waited to see Santa, but this year with the weather being decent, we decided to wait with our friends the Crellin's. We took a bunch of pictures with them but they didn't turn out. The wait turned out to be pretty long but it was worth it to get this classic Santa shot which I think every family has: The kid refusing to sit on Santa's lap.

I had a better shot of the kids sitting on Santa's lap but I decided to post this one because of Kelsey's face. Should I be concerned? She has this look about her that says, "Santa Baby!"

The kids all got a turn telling Santa what they wanted and then they got a Crayola Magic something coloring book, markers and their own package of Christmas Tree Peeps(both products that are made here). Pretty sweet deal if you ask me. I think Jocelyn was debating whether or not to ask Santa for certain things. It took her a long time to decide. After we left Santa, we went out side and the kids got on the fire engine. Those pictures too came out blurry but I had to post this one of Ralphie finally happy. I think he liked the big red truck over the big red man. I am sure I have mentioned this before but Bethlehem is home to the once famous Bethlehem Steel. Places like New York City to the Panama Canal were built from this steel. Any who, they have made from this old factory a casino, a shopping area, a event center and a few other things are in the works. At night they light up the old steel stacks with different color lights to match the season. This year they had a 5 minute light show on the steel stacks. We were exciting something a little more grand but it was their first year...maybe next year will be better?

You can't see the Steel Stacks really in the picture but that's where we were at and once again Ralphie is not having it. Do you think it might be the red hat we keep putting on him?

In my quest to make the Christmas season a little less commercial and more about giving, I decided our family and most of the people we know have an abundance of something: kids.Who loves kids more than anyone in the world: old people. I arranged for us to go Christmas caroling one night at a senior center. There was about 5 0r 6 families and we went to 3 different dining halls singing songs and then the kids passe out candy canes. It was such a neat experience that I definitely want to add that to our Christmas traditions. The seniors really did enjoy the children and we were all very grateful to share what we had a lot of.

Our choir of angels.

For family home evening one night we made gingerbread house except for I totally cheat and use graham crackers that I hot glue together. It works out a lot better this way.

This is one of Bryce's favorite looks. He looks down and then only looks up with his eyes. We have many a photo of this look. Bryce loved the candy free-for-all.

The Chalet-O-Jocey

The Jackson House of Sweets.

The Kelsey Marshmallow Cottage

The kindergartner's put on a holiday show that is really fun to watch plus Jocelyn loved the excuse to get all dressed up for school.

It's so funny how politically correct everything has become. They sang a song about Christmas being about love, Hanukkah and Santa but there was not a single traditional religious Christmas song. Santa made an appearance and then he went to every class in the school. Kelsey wanted to talk to Santa to make a few changes to her list but I told her it was too late.

Jackson's birthday post highlights our Christmas Eve activities so I am going straight to Christmas. Due to the fact that Christmas was on Sunday, we did things a little differently this year. The kids got to open one present and their stocking before church. They were actually quite OK with this plan.

Here they are in their Christmas pj's. Santa brings these the night before and we have had some years where they have matched and some years they haven't. It's probably hard for Santa to get them all to match since the kids sizes are in 4 different sections.

Church was at nine so we had to hurry and get dressed. Church was only sacrament meeting with a lovely musical program. The primary kids sang and even featured a unplanned solo by Kelsey. She loves to really belt things out even he she has no idea what she is singing. Wish I had a video recording of that one. I actually liked going to church on Christmas. I think it helped remind all of us why we celebrate this day.

We managed to snap a picture after church of them all in their Christmas best. Unfortunately the sun was shinning making are picture really washed out.

John-David and I tried to get a picture of us together but our photographers struggled so we has to go to the self-photo which wasn't much better. If we look really tired in this photo it was because well we were. Christmas was a busy time for us.

Kelsey getting anxious to open the presents.

Once again a lot of the pictures turned out blurry so I am just posting a picture for each child.

Jocelyn had wanted an American Girl Doll. We told her that might be a little much for Santa to bring. She got an "Our Generations" doll instead which she seemed pretty happy with.

Jackson was very vague with what he wanted until a week or two before Christmas. Santa just had to use his best judgement. Jackson still loves Star Wars so Santa went with a Millennium Falcon ship. It was a solid choice.

Bryce has a fetish for cleaning supplies. He was rather happy with present of mop and broom. Let's hope he keeps this interest as it has skipped over other siblings.

Kelsey wanted a doll with no specifications of what kind. That makes things a little easy. She got a Rapunzel doll with a matching dress. Since we knew what the girls were asking for and figured Santa would deliver, I decided these dolls were going to need beds. I convinced John-David that making these beds would be easy, which they relatively were, and I made the bedding with the help of my mom. They turned out pretty cute.

After presents we had breakfast and then we just stayed home and enjoyed the today. Later on we had dinner with just the family. It was a very relaxed day which I rather enjoyed.