December Traditions and More

One of our favorite things to do during the Christmas season is go to Christmas Village. I have been going ever since I was a little girl. We bundle up and head to downtown Ogden and walk around and look at the little houses filled with Christmas scenes. Santa and Mrs. Claus are always there in their little house waiting to talk to the kids. 

We had such a good time- we have known them forever, so the kids are basically like cousins. It was a beautiful warm day, and we were able to see almost all of the windows!

I loved our real tree this year!!!! It was monstrously huge, and it made our home feel so ready for Christmas. I loved our decorations this year, too. We decided just to do the one tree this year, and only added our Disneyland ornaments. Usually we add all ornaments from where we travel to, but this year, we didn't. We simplified!

Another extra fun tradition we do, or have done for the past couple of years, is go ice skating with Santa down at the Gallivan's Center with Karen's employment, DELTA. It's always rented out, and then we get dinner. This year the Gallivan Center has been redone and bigger and it was so nice!

The problem: it was so stinkin' cold!!! The wind was blowing like crazy, and the kids were so cold, especially Brayden...he didn't want to be there at all!! He was even madder when we put on his ice skates. He was terrified! He just screamed the whole time he was on the ice. On the way home I was trying to figure out why, and he said, "Because if the ice breaks then I fall in the water and I die!!!" The poor little worry wart- if I would have figured it out earlier... I don't know if it would have made a difference because I tried to reassure him that it wasn't deep water he was on. I felt so bad!

At least we had a big fire and donuts to keep Bray happy...

Clay and Ady did really well ice skating this time. They really got the coordination down this time and had a really great time. I was so proud of them. That's such a scary thing, and they totally did it!

There's our good friend Karen. She may as well be Ady's second mom. When Ady and I have our moments, Karen's there to make it all better!! She's the best!

The kids got ahold of my camera and took pictures of our decor, which I was actually grateful for. Here are our stockings. Sadly, I had never put Bray's name on his stocking, so this year, we got it on there, and now we are complete!

This is a cute little Santa that goes down the chimney as we pull the number bricks out. It's part of our tradition after reading our Christmas story each night (that is wrapped under the tree).

My new favorite ornament- Bray made me this from preschool- he is just so handsome!

Who could forget our Mickey Mouse ferris wheel- we hear this pretty much 24-7 during Christmastime!

Life in November 2011

After soccer wound down in October, it was nice to actually relax a bit in November. We only to to worry about basketball. Ady started basketball this year. It was very different than soccer. In soccer she knows what she is doing, and she does very well. Basketball was different- she didn't know the rules very well, and she was very unsure of herself. Whenever she got the ball, she passed it to someone else. Also, they played GIANTS!!! I know she is petite for her age, but really?!!! These girls she was against were so tall!!! It was fun to watch her, but her team lost every time! That doesn't matter because she had fun playing with her friends Maci, Shaylee, and Jocelyn!

My school had a health fair this month also. It was very well put together. I took the kids over and there was so much for them to do. Chick-fil-a was there to try their chicken nuggets, McDonalds was there with their apple dippers, Brayden's dentist was there and they chewed a pink fluoride tablet and their mouths were all pink! Clay's eye doctor was there and he talked about the eye. My highlight of the night was Deni from the Biggest Loser was there talking about being healthy and making changes in your life. She was so adorable!

Clayson made this at the beginning of the year for 1st grade. He did it all by himself, and instead of keeping, I throw out, but I took a picture so we could see his good work!

 Brayden made himself an indian costume in preschool. He was so excited about it! They had a little feast and everything. That is my classroom in the background (we've done a lot to make it NOT look like a portable!).

Thanksgiving this year was with the Jakins' family and I mean the WHOLE Jakins family. There was only Bronwyn, one of Dale's cousins and her family, missing. Yes- there are a lot of Jakins!

 This is all of the Jakins' siblings, minus Shelley, who has already died. On the far left, is.... um, not sure...! Then there is Mellem. She lives in Delaware, and when Dale's dad had his heart attack in September she came out. I had never met her before. Then there is Duane. He's the Jakins' patriarch. He's the oldest and when their parents died when Sorrel was 13 years old, he took care of everyone. This Thanksgiving was special having everyone together, and even more so because in February Duane unexpectedly died from lung cancer. (He and Merrill left just two weeks after Thanksgiving for their mission in the Washington DC temple. He started getting leg pains and came home in February to find out he had stage 4 lung cancer. By that time, it had spread and he only lasted one week home.) That made this picture even more special... then we have Sorrel and Sheridan- they are the "naughty" brothers! They are the youngest and the stories they tell.... what a fun family!

 That weekend we stuck with tradition and put up our tree, but this year we were at Home Depot and decided to pick out a real tree. We got the one we wanted, put it up on top of the van, drove home, and with a million pine needles everywhere, we put up our REAL tree. It made our house smell fantastic!

 We had some cowboys helping out with the process as well...

 That Saturday we went to Kylee's baptism. It was so nice. I got to speak on baptism, and then the lights went out. It was very memorable! They had lunch at the church afterward, and we opened all the doors to get light inside the building! We did her birthday party that day as well. We try to fit a lot in!

 Grandpa had told us coming home that a huge steam engine was at the Union Station. So we decided to swing by there. We stood in line and watched it- so much steam was coming out of it. It was parked and we could walk up to the front. Look how big the tires were!

 When we got home we got to finally decorate our tree. 

 It was Brayden's turn to put the star on the top.

 We were so excited to add our two new ornaments. Our tradition is get an ornament from every place we visit. This year the highlight of our year was our beautiful trip to Disneyland!!!!

Burton Family Pictures, October 2011

We have had Burton pictures together since Blake left for his mission. Ady was one year old. Um, ya, long time! So we headed to Eden to our photographer Trisha's in-laws yard. Eden is one of my favorite places in the valley! The kids were pretty cooperative, but it was just a lot of fun. It was really windy, and we just really enjoyed being with the family! The most fun was watching the kids and making sure they were all happy. We bribed Brayden because he was grouchy, Cole always has a grouchy face, and Jacob was grouchy, too! It was funny!

 This was a hard picture to get! We climbed into this riverbed, and I was in huge wedge shoes and it was super rocky, we were all laughing so hard as we were trying to get posed for the picture, and it was just fun!