Christmas letter 2012

Dear Family and Friends,
We hope that this holiday season finds you happy and healthy!  We have been so busy that we didn't realize that Christmas was sneaking up so fast, so we decided we'd better just do a Christmas letter electronically this year :) We have had a happy and busy year so here is the run down...we'll go youngest to oldest this time:
Lincoln: Lincoln is two years old and nearly potty trained! He’s been ready for awhile now, just waiting for mom to be ready too. He is so funny and makes us all laugh every day. He has the sweetest smile and says the funniest things. He screams loud and high….just like a girl. Link’s favorite phrases include “me do it myself” “snot me, it was Tracen” and “mom watch!” right before he tries a new stunt.
Tracen: Tracen is four and growing up fast! He started Sunbeams this year although he still would rather sit with mom at the piano. He also finished up a year of Joy School with his friends. This year he’s been learning letters and “doing school books” with mom and the boys. His favorite thing to do, though, is play outside in the dirt with his friend Addi. He has a contagious smile and a hilarious belly laugh. He can be a lot like his dad….aka mischievous.
Jesse: This year Jesse turned 10 has been quite the active guy. He has played soccer and basketball as well as going to Crossfit AMP (the older kids class). He has also enjoyed skiing and hiking with his dad. He earned his Bear award and became a Webelo. Jesse’s been honing his guitar playing skills (which he loves) as well as his piano playing ones (which is mostly because mom makes him). He decided to stay home and homeschool again this year. He is learning anatomy and US history this year as well as the normal stuff.
Tyler: Tyler has had a pretty big year, he received several scouting advancements and a few merit badges which puts him at a First Class Scout and on his way to his Star. He also turned 12 and received the Aaronic Priesthood this past October followed shortly by shooting his first deer. Tyler didn’t enjoy skiing quite as much as Jesse, but he does love his campouts with the scouts as well as hiking. He is also in Crossfit AMP and loves doing that 3 days a week. He is very musical and continues to play both the cello and the piano. Tyler is also homeschooling again this year and is studying the same things as Jesse, but I think he’s most happy about being in a pre-algebra book that requires his mom to call Grandma from time to time for assistance.
SheriDawn: I constantly struggle with maintaining a balance between working and being a mom. I work more than I should and more than I want to but have a hard time telling people no. I do enjoy working in the ER and have also started doing a few shifts as the night house supervisor (aka glorified gopher/problem solver) and the occasional shift in the ICU. I love being the mom and the school teacher and have become all too aware that my boys are growing up and won’t be little forever. I play the piano for primary on Sundays and the organ every 5-6 weeks or so.
Josh: Josh continues to work for SUU Police and enjoys it there. He was able to go to a couple of fun trainings this year. Fun training to Josh = putting on camo, playing in the dirt and shooting guns. He is in scouts so in his free time he went to Lake Powell with them and has gone on a few campouts. He’s taken up reloading and still loves to go shoot his guns whenever possible.
Merry Christmas!
Josh, SheriDawn, Tyler, Jesse, Tracen and Lincoln
Here are few picture to make you think that our boys love each other all the time and ALWAYS get along :)

Training to be Spidey

 

One morning after orchestra and crossfit I got the boys squared away (or so I thought) on their math and jumped in the shower.  When I got out of the shower and came into the kitchen I found Tyler and Jesse finishing up a tape job on Tracen. Here is my disclaimer.  Tracen was still standing on a chair when I came out.  They only moved said chair after saying “mom look!” and so he hung there maybe 15-20 seconds.  He was laughing until they took the chair away and yes….I took the picture before attempting to help him out.  It was pretty funny.  I asked the boys how they’d gotten him to stand up there and let them tape him to the door….it was pretty simple….They told told him that this is how Spiderman trains…..

Thanksgiving

We spent Thanksgiving at my mom’s with them and Larry and Keva.  We met Keva’s kids and got to see Connor, Brynn and Millie.  I only took one picture the entire time!  But it’s a cute one.  The kids were enjoying some pomegranates.  We sure do miss seeing Millie more often!

My mom on the other hand took lots of pictures….guess I’ll have to hit her up for some.

Halloween

This year everyone knew exactly what they wanted to be….so the hunt was on to get costumes together. Tyler wanted to be Seneca Crane from the Hunger Games, Jesse an army dude, Tracen Captain America and Lincoln insisted on being the red Angry bird.

We were able to put together Jesse’s costume no problem…thanks Jesse!  Tylers took a little bit more effort and some artistic abilities on my part for his face.  Tracen was a little more work.  I found him a blue set of leggings (I won’t say where ha ha) and a blue long sleeved shirt to which I added a white felt star.  We got a 99 cent hat and Jesse made a duck tape “A” on it.  Red gloves with red duck tape extensions and covered his irrigation boots in red duck tape too (thank heavens for duck tape!)  Jesse had a shield downstairs that he helped Tracen paint into a Captain America shield (extra points for Jesse!).  I made Link’s costume and it was a labor of love.  It looked easy enough….but it was slightly harder than that!  Not too bad though but it did take some time and some trying on….which he didn’t love.  But it turned out so cute and if I ever make one again I’ll know what to change!

Jesse had basketball practice so he stayed in Parowan and went trick-or-treating with his friend Marshall.  Kind of sad that he’s all grown up enough to hang out with friends instead of mom but he had a lot of fun.  Tyler and Tracen and Lincoln went with me to Aunt Lorie’s party, went to see dad for a few minutes (he was working) and then went back to Parowan where we trick-or-treated with Addi (Ty was nice and helped Lincoln out)  Lincoln was so cute running from house to house yelling “trick treat!” and “Tank you!” At one point he was even growling in his deep voice “turn out the lights”  He drug his plastic bag around on the ground (because he’s close to the ground) until it got a hole in it.  The kids are so dang cute at Halloween!

 

 

 

Trick or treating at Grandma’s

The trail of belongings on the way to the candy bowl

Caught

Trick or Treating with Addi….we’re so glad she puts up with us!

I made them take some pictures together once we all got home together.   Jesse definitely ended up with the most candy!

 

Happy Halloween!

Natural Bridges and Lake Powell

On the way home from hunting we decided to make a few stops instead of fly right through.

First we stopped at Natural Bridges and hiked to a few bridges.  It was beautiful and lots of fun.  Here is a picture overload…

 

A little planking.

We travelled on until we found a place to camp by Lake Powell.  It was thankfully tons warmer.  I had never been to this end of Powell before.  It’s very pretty.  We bbq’d hot dogs and played around a little bit before hitting the hay.  The next morning we looked around a little bit before finishing the long drive home.  We were so glad to get home!

 

Hunting and Exploring

For Tyler’s first deer hunt we traveled 6 hours to the San Abajo mountains by Blanding and Monticello.  Tyler, Josh, Jade and I all had tags.  Jade went the day before and found a camping spot.  It was really pretty but windy and FREEZING!  After worrying about whether or not our trailers would tip over in the wind and doing a little research we decided to move to another area.  On our way to our new camping spot we visited Newspaper Rock.

 

Our new camping spot over by Blanding was much warmer (relatively speaking) and not windy.  We did a lot of hunting…

and some sleeping (but he loved that four wheeler and wouldn’t get off)

We did light one fire for a few minutes

 

It was a super pretty area with lots of cool rocks and pretty scenery.  There was a lot of Indian ruins we took time to go check out too.

This is at the top of the mountain.  It was so cold and windy.  Josh and Jade decided that it would be faster to keep going down this road rather than turn around….they were wrong.  We drove 70 miles on dirt roads with 8 of us in our truck.  About half way through we laid down the back seats and had the kids all just pile in the back.  I’m not sure Ty has forgiven us yet.

At this point (A couple of days into the hunt) we had seen nearly nothing on public land and nothing we did see had any horns attached to their heads.  We got up early one morning and decided to drive from where we were near Blanding over the mountain to Monticello.  It was an insane road….just saying…if we’d fallen off the edge you’d probably still be looking for us!  But as I was driving along (after the scary part) a few deer popped out on the road and one of them had horns attached to it.  I said “there’s a buck!”  they ran through the trees so we had to back up a bit which is stressful when you have two excited guys wanting to shoot something.  They jumped out Ty with his 30-30 and Josh with his much larger gun and had the following conversation…

Ty:Should I shoot it?

Josh: Shoot it!

Ty: Should I shoot it?

Josh: Shoot it!….no don’t shoot it (it had turned)

Ty: Should I shoot it?

Josh: Shoot it!

BAM…..Ty shot it!  One shot with an open sight 30-30 first try, first deer hunt.  Good shot buddy!  It was so funny he started jumping up and down and yelling “I shot a deer!” over and over.  Which is good because I was a little worried that he’d be upset in the end. 

Dancing…

K-it was freaking freezing.  We gutted that deer in 20 degree coldness.  It was so flipping cold.  And Josh was the one getting to do all the dirty work.  I had to stay out and supervise though since I’m the resident anatomy expert.  We got it figured out though before frostbite set it on Josh’s fingers.

The best idea Josh ever had was dropping that deer off at the butchers in Monticello.  $106 later I didn’t have to worry about cutting up that deer when we got home like we usually do.

The short story is that we never saw another buck on public land.   They were all lower in private lands, but that’s ok because Ty got his deer.  Here are some more cute pictures.

goofing off

We were grateful for some electronics to help pass the time.

The end.