Bridger's TaVaci Christmas Concert

If you are a follower of our blog, you know that Bridger started singing as soon as he could talk. I have a video of him singing several primary songs when he was 20 months old. He continues to like to sing and is in a singing group called TaVaci. It is a fun group where they have learned lots of fun Christmas songs with props and some dance moves. 

The concerts are always a hoot and pure enjoyment to watch our little performers. 

This is one of Bridger's favorite songs, "Yummy Christmas Time."

Bridger in middle with rolling pin the highest. Just look for the kid with the off centered belt  

 This song, "Hoofin' It Tonight" was another favorite. 

We recruited Bridger's friends to join- All the blondie's around him.

Bridger had a solo part in a quartet singing "Nuttin' for Christmas"

the video link is at the bottom. 

Bridger's Quartet Video

 Excuse the bumpiness- Sissy was trying to help me record :) 

Bridger with Landon and Sawyer at the end of the concert

Santa came to the concert and here he is giving Bridger a big hug and compliment on his singing.

All of us at the end of the concert. 

Great Job, Bridger!

Winter Garden-A-Glow and The Gingerbread House

 This is our third year attending the Winter Garden-A-Glow.

It is a really fun night for the kids to go look at Christmas lights, pet a reindeer, see Santa, make a craft and eat lots of goodies. We get to see a few of Ben's colleagues there and we also invite some friends to come with us. This year we brought the Perry's and the Bell's. 

The night was perfect weather. We have had a really mild winter so far, and by the end of the night, most of us had our coats off. Thank goodness for the stroller to carry all of our winter gear, goody bags, hot chocolate and prizes... it's a given that Sissy won't stay in it for longer than 10 minutes anywhere I go. I hate bringing it, but like tonight, it usually comes in handy for lots of other things. 

Carter with the gingerbread man.

And Frosty

Bridger, Carter and Carson

Bridger with Santa and Mrs. Claus

All the kids before Sissy started wailing when Santa looked at her. 

 Bridger has been so excited for Christmas this year. I finally gave in to putting up the Christmas tree a week before Thanksgiving, after several days of he and Carter digging through all the Christmas decorations and spreading them all over the basement and them begging me everyday non stop to put it up. Uggh. I couldn't take it anymore, so we just set it up, hoping that this would pacify their eagerness for the season. Nope. They just moved on to other things, like the Gingerbread house. Bridger saw a gingerbread house kit at the grocery store when we were in Utah buying things for our Thanksgiving dinner. The only way I got it out of the cart without three hysterical children (Sissy had no clue what it was, she just follows suit) was that I promised we would make one when we got home. Bridger's memory is way too good and on the drive home insisted that before we got to our house, we had to go to the store. I delayed again, but it was only a matter of  a day before the begging began. Bridger would make threats that he wasn't going to school or do his jobs etc etc if I didn't make one. FINALLY! On December 1st I made a gingerbread house for him to put together. This kid thought he would die before I would ever get to it!

I would say the house was okay. I am a much better cook than an architect and my plans for house didn't turn out to match up like they should after it was cooked, so we had to adjust it a little bit, but it was nothing that a little frosting glue couldn't fix.

And, it's our first gingerbread house, so cut us some slack. 

 The house is built and decorating has begun!

 Sissy loves this idea, she sat there just eating handfuls of candy. 

 He can be meticulous. Here Bridger is using gummy bears to line the rooftop to be elves. He had me put frosting caps on each of them.

The final pictures: Bridger did it all himself, I just helped with  the frosting. 

The rest of the day, both Bridger and Afton were so sick. They definitely had way too much sugar.  Carter was at horse riding lessons when we did this, so he was fine and just got to sneak candy pieces off the house when Bridger wasn't looking. 

With the Tree up and gingerbread house made by Dec. 1st- I'd say we're off to a great start! 

Horse Riding Lessons

After Carter loved riding Exit in Wyoming, Ben decided that he might enjoy horse riding lessons. 

And, of course, Ben would like any excuse to go to any ranch. 

He found some lessons at Treasure Valley Quarter Horses in Star, which is about 20 minutes away.

He really likes it and Ben really likes going out in the country. 

"Yahoo! I'm ready to go!"

The first lesson the lady stayed by him the whole time, Bridger followed behind.

The next time, Carter graduated to wearing a helmet while he rode and he went more by himself.

Carter says that he really loves riding in a kid saddle

Learning how to stop the horse and steer.

Bridger watching and hoping for a turn of his own

Bridger takes a short turn

Part of me thinks that this is part of an evil plan of Ben's to get Carter more interested in rodeo or horses or more of an excuse to get our own farm someday. The subject has come up more often in the last few months. Anyway, where ever this goes, Carter is having a great time.

Thanksgiving 2012

This Thanksgiving we made the trek to Utah. As long as Sissy is sleeping, the drive is fine. When she is awake, she is usually grouchy and throws anything we give her to play with back at us. No. She does not like to travel. Luckily, we made it all in one piece.

We went to Aunt Katie's, Ben's sister's house, and dropped off our stuff and then went to the bowling alley where we met, Tom and Denise- Ben's brothers family, and played two games of bowling. Bridger was very excited, as he had just played bowling in P.E. at school, so he knew how to play and he won every time. 

We all had a blast but unfortunately the bumpers only stay up for the kids.

On Thanksgiving day, we spent the morning cooking and getting the meal ready, then we met Ben's family at a church to eat. There were several of his aunts and cousins there too, who were fun to see as well. 

Even Granny Great made the trip to come. She is 97 now, so anytime we get to see her, we consider it a treat. 

Here is Sissy and Great Grandma

Not quite sure if Sissy liked her dinner. 

I know she did like playing with it. 

 She likes to flavor her water at almost every meal. It grosses us all out, but she apparently really prefers chunks in her drinks.

 Pictures with Granny Great

We are not good at hiding presents, and the boys found some bows and arrows we had made for them before we left home, originally planning them for Christmas presents. It turned out okay since we wanted to give some of them to the cousins. They were a hit and they played with them all day long. 

 Cousin Justin brought a whip that he has mastered at cracking, and gave the boys a try. 

Luckily, no body was whipped in the process!

The rest of the day we spent at Aunt Katie's. Playing with cousins, board games and of course naps and leftovers. And, some test drives on Uncle Johnathon's motorcycle. (pictures to come soon)

Friday we went to Logan to see the Johnson cousins.

Aunt Mar just moved into a new house and everyone loved to play there. They played outside with bows and arrows and with the dog and the mud. Then downstairs with table tennis and toys.  

Ben instantly found the motorbike and was quickly taking the boys for rides. Unfortunately, it broke down and he had to push it home quite a ways up a steep hill. He definitely got his exercise for the weekend in just this endeavor. 

Here are Carter and Zach "playing" table tennis and cowboys.

Kids table

 Two new cousins- Sophie and Thomas with their proud Papa's.

(It seemed so strange to have new babies around that weren't my own!)

All the cousins- basically impossible for them all to look at the same time- or even look at all.. 

We are thankful for the chance to have extended family time. And see the cousins play together.

Family is one of our favorite blessings and it was a great trip. 

Hooray, Hooray, Hooray!

Today we had our ultrasound for Tippets Baby Four.

Unlike the last 2 ultrasounds, we actually slept the night before and were not kept awake with thoughts of gastroschesis, cleft lip, diaphragmatic hernia, tetrology of fallot or many other medical issues. (Since I had ultrasounded  myself with Bridger a jillion times prior to the 20 week ultrasound, I wasn't worried with him either.)

Anyway, the ultrasound was good.

Four chambers of the heart, brain all developing normally, four limbs, two kidneys, face forming well and very active.

My placenta is anterior again which I had assumed since I have rarely felt this baby move until the last few weeks- but I am 22 weeks now, so he is pretty big.

Unlike all of the other ultrasounds, the gender was not confirmed. So far, I am three for three, and we told the tech that we didn't want to find out this time. Usually, we can see the gender before we are really looking to tell, this time, he was moving so much and had the legs crossed the majority of the time, we couldn't tell. The tech was really good too about being quick and getting only the information that we needed. The only bummer is all the pictures that we got were not very good because he wouldn't hold still long enough to get clear views. Oh well. It feels a little weird that we aren't for sure and that it really will be a surprise as to the gender. I still think it is a boy.

Anyway, we are relieved, elated and feel so blessed and so, so thankful to the Lord that everything looks perfect. Hooray, Hooray, hooray!!

Bridger wanted to get pictures, so here are some from today.

So in Love!

Last week this Little Lady was so sick. She was febrile, vomiting and lethargic for 24 hours and only consoled when she was held. So what do you do when you have things to do but have a really sick kiddo? Well, I decided that the "things" could wait, and I held her all day. She barfed on me a few times, she napped on me and mostly just laid in my arms. You could say I got nothing done, except realized again how much I am in love with this little girl, how fast she is growing and how lucky I am to be her mom, and how lucky I was to hold such a precious girl for an entire day. It has been one of my favorite days this month. It made my heart full of gratitude for the blessings that all my children are to me.  

Happy for her, and a pleasure for us, she was feeling much, much better the next day and ran around the house laughing and squealing. She made many hearts melt by saying  "Hi" to everyone at the store and gave them her most adorable and charming smile. Hooray for a healthy Sissy, Hooray for a day to just love my little girl. 

September and October Fun

This is what happens when I get behind on blogging- one post with tons of pictures that I finally downloaded from my camera. 

In a nutshell, a large one, here are the highlights from September and October. 

My friend Holly and I decided that we were going to can peaches this year. I am not exactly sure why- we never eat canned fruit and I have a bunch of  "store canned" peaches in my food storage already. I guess the reasons were: 1- I had some jars I needed to use 2- I remember home canned fruit tasting better than the stores 3- I want my children to have the experience of canning and 4- The prophets have told us recently that having a garden and preserving food is a skill that we will NEED in the future. (see here if you would like to read the article) 

Anyway, Holly went to get the fruit. It wasn't ripe yet so we had to wait to can. It was Labor Day weekend and she was vacationing when the fruit was ripe- so we (my family) canned all 200 pounds of peaches- making 96 quarts. And, no, I will not can your fruit if you bring it to me. This was just a bad coincidence that she was gone when the fruit was ripe.

It took 12 hours to do it all, I did 14 quarts in 4 hours by myself and the rest was done in 8 hours with the help of everyone. Teamwork works! 

It was a long day and Ben says he will never can again. After we were done, Bridger said, "I know, Mom, we can eat these peaches when it is winter and we don't have any other peaches!" 

BINGO! He is a smart one :) 

To reward ourselves, we went to a hot air balloon festival that night, the kids enjoyed it. 

 They light up the balloons in correlation to music, it was fun to see. 

Mutton Bustin Round TWO

Carter has been sad that he didn't get to mutton bust ever since Bridger did it in the Spring, so we found one last rodeo that had mutton bustin. The boys trained and trained by riding Ben. He was much more ferocious than any sheep would ever be. 

We signed them up and here they are excited to go:

Enthusiasm ran out quickly and by the time we got to the rodeo- Carter was insisting that he WAS NOT participating. We encouraged and offered as many bribes as we could think of, but he still refused. Bridger was still in for the adventure here:

 And here too- waiting in line with all the other participants. 

And somewhere in the line, Bridger lost his gusto. He didn't even want to get on the sheep and it took some coaxing, then he got off as fast as he could.

Maybe next year. 

  Carter was happy to be watching from the sidelines.

Linder farms Corn Maze and Pumpkin Patch

We went with our friends the Perrys and Maxfields to the corn maze. Carter had been sick the day before, so I had a barf bag handy- for either he or I- to use at a moments notice. The evening was fine.

 That is the evening was fine until the pumpkin patch and Bridger came to me and said, "I'm going to barf." I handed him the bag and he held it while looking for his pumpkin. He was waiting in this train ride when he really started barfing. I took him out and the train left without him. He was really bummed.

Carter had a fun ride!

 Kids are so resilient. He just finished one episode of barfing then he wanted this picture taken:

 The night ended up with 4 of us barfing (at home) and a week with the stomach bug. It's hard enough taking care of a healthy family while barfing being preggo. Being preggo with the stomach bug and taking care of a barfing family was almost more than I could do. It makes me so thankful for our health!

We planted almost 200 tulip bulbs here in this flowerbed in our back yard. I can't wait for Spring for them to come up! 

Five minutes and a Marker 

Boys used marker to make their pirate faces. Somehow the eye patch, beard, mustache, and forehead scar all mingled into one. 

 Of course Sissy has to do everything her brothers do! 

 And throw a fit when her fun has ended.

 Pumpkin Carving

 Ha! I didn't even get a picture of the finished product! We had fun doing it and they turned out cute. 

I love crazy bath pictures!

Afton's hair is getting longer every day.

Halloween

Back L to R: Bridger as Ninja, Maeley as Witch, Carter as Batman

front: Sissy a ladybug, Carson Spiderman and Ashlyn as pumpkin

This is typical Bridger:

 We received an invitation in the mail to a Winter Snow Globe event where you go to see Christmas lights, see Santa and eat treats. He wanted to host his own, so all by himself, he set up this in the basement. When he gets an idea, there is no stopping him. We received personal  invitations to the event, and were greeted by a cute little boy in a Santa hat. We enjoyed cheez-its, craisins, almonds, apples, pudding and applesauce for our lunch at the Tippets Winter Snow globe. 

Sissy enjoying the leaves. (not sure if she or Ben chose her outfit, but it was not me)