Friday, December 26, 2008

Christmas Day

We had such a great Christmas day. We woke up the boys, yup, we had to wake up the boys, and we didn't even have to drug them the night before. They opened presents, Carter opened a few extras that weren't for him and I had to quickly rewrap them all before we went to Sam's mom's house. We got to Lakewood by 9:30 am, ate breakfast and celebrated Christmas with Grandma Sherri, the Cruz's, and the Downing's. After that was over we met up with Sam's dad at Peter and Amber's and hung out there for awhile. Then we went to the movies with Peter, Amber, Branden, and Justin and saw Bedtime Stories. After that we went back to Temecula to my parents house and finished up the Christmas festivities, opening a few more presents, playing some games, and of course eating more food. This has got to be one of the best Christmases I have ever had. What a wonderful day.



Porter and Carter in front of our Christmas tree.
Matt, Brandi and Memphis -- The Downing Family
Branden, Justin, Amber and Peter

Then there was us...and Wednesday, the dog, who I think wants to be adopted by us because Sam takes her for a walk everytime we got to his mom's house.

Briar and Leslie performing Carol of the Bells

This is a little clip of my nieces doing their own little version of Carol of the Bells. It is so funny, although I think they stopped it a little short.

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve we celebrated with Cari's parents and the Shaws, Morgans, Stansels, Shreenans and Sam's dad. We had a wonderful dinner, enjoyed a great Christmas program put together by Morgan (Shreenan), and watched the kids open their presents from their secret santas. We really had a great time there at my parents and then came home, opened pajamas (Porter & Carter) and went to bed.

Porter and Kyle wearing the sweatshirts they got from Grandma & Grandpa
(Porter just learned about "Bunny Ears" but doesn't quite get it)
Us on Christmas Eve 2008

Briar and Porter

Kim, David, Kelly & Freckles

Heather, Dru, Deana, and Dave

Sam and Ken playing chess

Chloe, Leslie, Autumn and Erin

Greg, Charla, and Kyle

The grandkids doing their Chrismas performance (they are such performers).

Monday, December 22, 2008

Goodbye to the Smiths...

I can't tell you how thankful we are for the friendship we have shared with the Smith Family these last three years. I think that each member of our little family has definately formed a bond with each of them and we are really going to miss them.

Porter and Wyatt
Sam and Tyler
Me and Joanna



Gracie wasn't there that night and I am sad that she and Carter didn't get a picture and weren't able to say goodbye to eachother but they have been able to spend a lot of time together these last few weeks at preschool and at our house.

Guys, we really can't say how much we will miss you and I hope that it won't be long before we make our way up to Utah to see you all again!




The Boys Christmas Programs at School

The boys had their Christmas programs at Ms. Michelle's last week and they both did such a great job.


This is a picture of Carter holding Santa's hand and telling us that wants an Optimus Prime for Christmas.

Carter singing about how yummy that peppermint stick was!

I think he really tried a lot harder this time to do the motions as he sang...he really is a little shy.

This big cheesy grin totally makes up for it though!

The next day was Porter's program--he wants a Bumble Bee for Christmas.

He is much less afraid to perform than Carter.

Singing away in a manger.

In his class performance the boys paired up with the girls and here he is dancing with his friend Jaida. They were so cute and did such a great job!
Thanks Ms. Michelle for another great performance. You are an amazing teacher!!

Thursday, December 18, 2008

Baby Memphis!!!

We finally made it to Lakewood to see our new little nephew Memphis Gene who was born on Thanksgiving Day. Porter and Carter had been asking practically every day when we would get to see him and we ended up going out there last Saturday for Sam's birthday.

Carter Eugene and Memphis Gene both named after their great-grandpa Eugene Feack.

Porter was so excited to hold little Memphis and he was so content to just sit and stare at him while he was sleeping through out the day.

Oh yeah, and Sam hasn't lost his touch with babies. He wrapped that baby up tight like a burrito, gave him a bottle, burped him and got him right to sleep. He was so happy to spend some time with his little baby nephew. This picture ALMOST makes me want to have another one.

Sam Turned the BIG 30!




For Sam's birthday we went out for Chinese food and then tried to go bowling for our first time ever with the boys but of course we had no clue that a Tuesday night would be packed with bowling leagues so as a second choice we went to Mulligans to play some games. Porter and Carter had a blast on the video games and Ken and Sam had a blast playing air hockey. I couldn't believe how much Porter got into this Motorcycle game. I swear I thought he was going to fall off the side of that thing when he would lean from side to side to avoid obstacles and he was even making motorcycle sounds with his mouth: NOTE the picture on the left. Carter had a really great time playing the car game and actually did quite well, as long as one of us was standing by him with our foot on the gas pedal. Check out how serious he looks with his hands at 10 & 2.





I really think that we all had a great time!
Especially the Birthday Boy!!!!!

A Boys Day Out


A few Saturdays ago Sam asked Porter if he would like to take a couple friends to the gym to work out a little. He invited Kyle and Isaac to go play around with Bob--the workout dummy.

Not only did they fight with Bob--they fought eachother

and when they got tired -- they just watched Porter and Carter.

They enjoyed some McDonald's after working up an appetite.

These cute little guys sure do have a much bigger bark than a bite!

I Bet He's Dreaming About A Red Rider BB Gun!

One night, a couple weeks ago,
Porter fell asleep like this while watching t.v.
I guess he just couldn't stay awake long enough to rewind to
his favorite part of A Christmas Story!
(The part where the kid sticks his tongue to a pole)


Friday, December 5, 2008

Oh, these kids...

So Porter and Carter crack me up all the time with the funny little things that they say. In my previous post I had pictures of lizards that Sam had brought home one night for the boys to play with. Well, that next day Carter had put an army tank (from one of those plastic army men sets)in with the lizards and the lizards climbed on top of it and Carter told Sam: "Those lizards are so silly...they think they are army men!"

Then the other day we were driving in the car and Porter said "Mom when I am married me and my hunny (that is what he refers to his future wife as) are just going to live with you so we don't have to drive so far to get to your house everyday."

The best is when they just banter back and forth with one another. A few days ago Carter opened up the scriptures and said "Look mom, a picture of Jesus." Porter, in a sorry attempt to be funny said "No Carter, you're Jesus". I then said "Porter, don't say things like that--it's blasphemous." Porter then turned to Carter and said "You're not Jesus...you're blasphemous!"

These are probably a few things that I am writing down more for us than anyone else...maybe you won't find them very funny, but I am telling you these kids just crack us up sometimes.




Saturday, November 29, 2008

Blogging from memory?

Yep, I think that is just what I'll do. I am going to take the pictures from my camera and whatever the different pictures are from that are on my memory card I will say a little something about them. (This is just my way of catching up on a month's worth of pics!)

We're trying to sell the Expedition so Sam asked me to take a picture of it.

Sam came home one night with four baby lizards that someone had found and given to him.

The boys absolutely loved playing with them...I don't really see the appeal though.
Wyatt and Grace were with us that night and had fun playing with the lizards...even Gracie did, except I didn't manage to get a picture of it.


Porter and I celebrated our birthdays this month, Porter turned 5 and I, well, we just won't talk about that...


Our Disneyland passes were about to expire and we aren't planning on renewing them this year so we thought it would be fun if Sam and I take Porter to Disneyland, just the three of us, so we could take him on all the fun rollercoasters without Carter holding us back.
WE HAD SO MUCH FUN!!!

Porter also shared a birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese with his cousin Kyle. Gotta love it.

And finally, although I didn't manage to get any pictures from Thanksgiving Day, I did take pictures of the kids when we took them and my niece and nephew out for ice cream on Friday while everyone else in the family went to the movies.
All-in-all I would have to say that November 2008 made for some pretty good times.
I'm dying to know, what is on your memory that you wouldn't normally blog about?
Come on lets see.