Who needs a sled?

This weekend my whole family came up to Idaho to visit. We were so glad that they could come, we had so much fun, and we miss them again already. On Saturday we took all the kids sledding. It was a great time! Here is a video of my two crazy brothers. they invented a new way to go down the hill. Bytheway, just turn the volume off unless you want to hear me count to three a lot. :)

Let it SNOW!!!

Okay, so Tyelr doesn't know that Giryan always dances with us when he's at the studio.... This kid needs a stage! It has been snowing pretty consistently for a couple of weeks now, and I've been promising the boys that we would go out an play in the snow. so now that I'm done teaching until January I finally kept my word...

Ellie loves to play fetch with snowballs, it's hilarious.

We played outside till our hands were freezing, and then we played more. The snow in our front yard is easily up to my knees. It was a blast!

Finally we came in for some hot cocoa and got warmed up, I'm so glad to have a break from teaching so I can hang out and play with my kids. They are awesome!

Tyler taking up carving

Tyler has recently taken up wood carving as a relesae from life... and to sustain a legacy of the past. Here is a picture of his first two carvings.

a few more halloween pics cuz they are awesome

Halloween

Here's a picture of our cute little goblins all ready for trick or treating. (Spiderman, Tigger and Transformer/bumblebee) We had a great time! We visited Grandma and Grandpa Jones, then we went trick-or-treating at the mall (all the stores give out treats) and finished up with a visit to Grandma Great. And we still managed to get them in bed by 8:30.... GO US!!! Of course they didn't actually go to sleep until much later thanks to the incredible sugar high. I was actually relieved that some of the places we went gave out pretzels, play doh, stickers and tattoos. I think that's a great idea.... and plan to do something similar next year.

Giryan the Daredevil!

Giryan was having a little daredevil moment today.. I thought it was too cute not to post.

Brecken and the infectious Smile

In our family, Tayson has the tender heart, Giryan is the lion (his name in Hebrew means young lion) and Brecken always makes you laugh and smile. He will tell you about everything and be so creative in his stories you would think he is a professional. On anyone's bad day he will always be there with a smile. So if you are having a bad day, here is a picture for you

Giryan's earaches

For the past month, Giryan has had extremely bad ear aches. We have gone through antibiotics and soon will have one named after us, because each of our children seem to not respond to them the first time. Finally, Giryan took it into his own hands to get feeling well. hahaha not really, the bottle was empty :)lol

Tayson's Big Day

Tayson has loved school. On his ICI's he scores as high as possible. his teacher loves him and says he knows every answer and is eager to raise his hand. His favorite thing about school is the excercise (PE) and the computer pod. Each week they rotate stations(pods and learn new things. He has loved making new friends. We were a bit worried about how his tender heart would hold up in school, as he is so loving and believes we should be conscience about everyone's feelings. But what we found, is his once suttle competitive spirit has risen to the forefront and he seeks to dominate and succeed at school. He has a great love of learning and loves to share with everyone that love, especially Brecken.

The catch up.. to all of our faithful readers ;)

Sorry it has been awhile since we have updated this. We have had many great and exciting events since our last post.

Tayson has started kindergarten; Brecken is in Joy School (Pre-preschool). Both are loving it.

We have become vehicular friends with murphy and have had to replace or fix 1 transmission, 1 transfercase, 7 flat tires, one axle, and an incident with a basketball pole ;o.

Tyler, his dad and brothers have had some fun hunting trips... here is a great picture from the antelope bowhunt.

I promised...

Here are some pictures of my very first Tutu! Hooray!!! I am very proud of this accomplishment. this was for the Bluebird Variation in Sleeping Beauty. It took a good chunk of time but I was surprised to find that I enjoyed every minute of it. I was hoping to make my dearest Grandma proud and I think I did. when I took it to Utah to show it to her she said "It looks just like I made it myself." I couldn't have asked for a better compliment. I love you Grandma Mia, this one's for you.

Tayson is 5!!!

This week Tayson turned 5 years old! I can't believe that he is so old!!! Here are a few pictures of his parties, one at Twin Bridges with tylers family and one at the Riot Zone with his friends. I know my posts are so short lately. Life has been crazy, what can I say. Grandma Jones made the batman costumes.

Happy Birthday Giryan!

Hooray! Giryan is one year old. He's such an awesome kid. All smiles and fun. We had some family over for cake and ice cream last night, it was good times. Giryan kept going over to his presents and saying WOW!!!! over and over... it was so cute. Giryan we love you!

Whats new

Summer is finally here!!!! I'm sure you wont be surprised if I say that we are incredibly busy. We moved!!! again. :) We've been building this house and we found somebody who wanted to be into our old house by June 1st so we got out of there and in to here.... This time we are staying for a while... I told Tyler 5 years min. He agrees, so we are happy to be making this house home and for the first time since we've been married not being in an "investment" property. We Love it... and this time I actually chose all the colors and fixtures, carpet, etc, etc, etc,... Instead of letting somebody else do it, And I think I did a pretty darn good job.... The first week of June was also our Spring ballet performance and I made a tutu...(pictures coming soon, I promise) We sure do know how to time all of these events so we are not overwhelmed huh... (wink, wink.) The middle two weeks of June (yes a week after we moved and 1 day after the performance) I went to Utah to take some of my students to Utah Regional Ballet's summer intensive workshop. I was really proud of them. When I got home Tyler had filled our Living room and Bedroom with new furniture, yes I have the greatest husband in the world! I couldn't have picked better furniture myself. So I might be crazy and undecisive 99% of the time but my decision to marry Tyler, well I did good. I'm so happy to be home and just enjoying life. Here are some pictures of my awesome children. Tayson and Brecken are showing off their muscles.

Zion National Park

Hooray!!! We finally made it to Zion! It was warm and beautiful, red rocks and blue skies, and I was in heaven. Our boys were staying with my parents so we got to just hang out and act like kids again. We slept in if we felt like it, listened to whatever we wanted to in the car (and I didn't have to spend most of the driving time climbing between the front and back seats getting snacks and toys and books), and we sat by the campfire and just enjoyed the peace and quiet, (we even had a whittling contest one night). The first day we hiked up to the top of this waterfall and found this really pretty place where the water was seeping through the rocks. For dinner that night we went into town and had a traveling dinner. We had appetizers at one restaraunt, a main course at the second and desert at another restaraunt. Just for fun. This was the yummiest dessert I have ever had (and the prettiest) so I had to take a picture.
The second day we went around to the Kolob entrance and hiked 13 miles round trip to Kolob arch. This is our WE MADE IT! picture. I carried the camera all the way in and when I pulled it out to take a picture of the arch the batteries were dead! I did get a pretty good picture on my cell phone.
Day 3 we just slept in, packed up camp, took the little 1 mile riverwalk to the bottom of the narrows, and headed home feeling refreshed and happy and sooo blessed. Life is good!

Swimming at Bear Lake (indoors of course)

Last Monday we headed down to Logan to visit some of our good friends. Tyler spent the days helping work on their house and the boys and I stayed in Bear Lake and went swimming with friends. Here's Tayson and his friend Logan. They had so much fun. and Here's Brecken showing us how he can swim "all by himself" Our friends have a boy Breckens age too, but he didn't get to go swimming because he was sick. :(

update

March 18th was Brecken's 3rd birthday! He had a few friends over for a party. He's such a big kid! He got a new Big Kid Bike from Ty and I. He was so excited. I haven't got a good picture of it yet, but I'm sure it will be featured in many pictures this summer. Giryan Loves the Water! Look at those blue eyes!!!
This is the boys checking out dad's new fishing boat. It was Ty's Christmas present to himself. I like to give him a hard time about it, but it is pretty cool, I guess. Ty took it out on the river for the first time last weekend. He loved it.
just thought I would throw a few new pictures up so everybody could see what were up to, not much really. but it is getting warmer in Idaho. Today it was 45. aarrrgh. :) in May Ty and I are going to go to Zion National Park Camping and hiking for a few days, I can't wait to get headed south!

Hiking

I think I'm speaking for my whole family when I say we are all going a little stir crazy, being shut up in the house all winter. So,.. sunday we decided to take a Hike in the 30 degree weather. It was freezing but the sun was out and well,.. you just have to take what you can get sometimes. We quickly learned that the snow was not really as melted as it looked (we learned this as we were sinking to out knees in it) but it felt nice to be out in the fresh air. I think we only made it half a mile maybe, then we decided that if we wanted to go much farther we would have to invest in some snow shoes. But we did get to see some deer and some wild turkeys and accomplished our mission to get out of the house even if we were really cold.
I can't wait for spring! so all of you out there pray for Idaho to get warmer for us. not too fast though, for the floods sake.

Tayson, Sweet Tayson!

Tayson is our compassionate thoughtful kid, here's a recent example.
Tayson and Brecken both take gymnastics, If they do good in their class sometimes I give them each a quarter for the candy machine. this is our conversation later that night.

Me: What kind of candy did you get with your quarter today?
Tayson: Hard candy (this means Runts)
(Pause)
Tayson: I only just took a couple, though
Me: Why did you only just take a couple?
Tayson: Cause I had to leave some for all the other kids that were there.

We love you Tayson!

Crazy, Crazy, Crazy

Okay, so we didnt drop off the face of the planet, but it felt like it for a while. the last couple of months have been so crazy. SO I'll just write quickly what we have been up to. Of course December was crazy for the same reason it has been every year since I was 8 years old. Nutcracker!!!! For those of you that were dancers with me, this needs no explanation. Those who were not, think 1 month old baby with colic. it's that stressfull. After our performance here in Idaho falls I made all new snow headpieces for Utah Regional Ballet in 3 days. Then we had Christmas!!! we had so much fun, it was an awesome year. This is the first christmas in a long time that I have been able to decorate the house and just enjoy because we were not in the middle of moving!

January hit us like a freight train, Brecken fell off our barstool (The second barstool catastrophe in 3 months, as I'm sure you will remember) and bit all 4 top teeth all the way through his tounge. The tounge was hanging on by two thin pieces on each side. what followed was a very long trip to the emergency room, where we found that he doesn't react to anisthetics the way most people do, and after 7 hours we finally had to have a plastic surgeon come in and sew his tounge back together, it was a scary day. Since we spent so much time in the hospital that day, we came home with all sorts of fun illnesses. Tyler got really sick, all the kids got pinkeye, Tayson got an ear infection, I got the flu and Giryan got RSV. Luckily G- didn't have to go to the hospital but we've been doing nebulizer treatments 4 times a day to help his lungs be able to breathe. Everybody is finally all better for the first time in a long time. (Knock on wood) So that is my very good excuse for not writing in our blog for over 2 months. We did manage to have some fun in January, Tyler and I left the kids with the parents and went snowmobiling in Yellowstone for 3 days, It was so much fun and as soon as we are rich and famous we are buying us some snowmobiles.

I put in some pictures of my happy, not sick, kids. (and since Mandy asked the reason I never appear in our blog is because I am always the one taking the pictures and never in the pictures, but I'll try to do better :) )