First Time Ice Skating

The kids and I enjoyed our first time ever ice skating today. We went for my neice's birthday party. They were slow to get started, but with the help of uncles, aunts, and cousins of cousins, they started to get the hang of it. The uncles even took Peyton out for a few spins so he could feel like he was part of the action. I did my one token lap holding onto Stockton with his walker. I pretended like I was helping him, but he was really holding me up. Dad was really sad that he had to work and wants to go again some time.

Thanks Stacy and Ry for a fun day skating and Happy Birthday Alydia!!!!

Christmas Eve and Morning 2009

We had a wonderful Christmas again this year. Every year I realize how blessed I am to have a great husband and kids. And how much I enjoy our traditions and being able to spend time together. We are so fortunate and I am thankful to Andy for how hard he works to make my life easier.

(Somehow I always manage to get the pictures in backward order. So if you want to start with Chirstmas Eve, you should go to the bottom and work your way up.)

Peyton with his loot. He didn't want to stay standing by it very long. He was more excited about everyone else's presents than his own. Santa had a hard time shopping for Peyton. He already had all of the presents ready by the time Peyton decided he liked trains so much. But trust me, the kid is not hurting for something to play with!!!

Stockton's loot was mostly Legos and Star Wars Action Figures and Airplanes. He also got some GI Joes that his dad was pretty excited about, some army guys, two nerf guns, and a spy watch. He was thrilled. I am not so sure about all the little toy parts all over the floor.


Abby was also thrilled with everything she got. She really wanted dolls, a hair salon table, a pet care kit, and a polly pocket roller coaster. She got everything on her list with one small compromise on the pet care table. She is having fun playing pollys and princesses and doing Aunt Kristin's hair.

We did have some small tiffs when Peyton would not leave the polly coaster alone. He really liked turning the knob and making the train car climb the track. Abby did not like him messing with her new toy!

Abby trying out her new toy blowdryer.

Stock showing his new Beatboxer hat. He wants to be a beatboxer when he grows up. He has not stopped wearing it since he got it.

It took Peyton a few minutes to get going, but he loved opening the presents. He practiced quite a bit on all of his cousins presents from us the day before. (Which all had to be re-wrapped) And he moved on to mine when he had all his own opened on Christmas Morining.

Getting the hang of things.

Pretty excited about her hair stuff.

Stockton opening his present from Abby. We let them go to the dollar store and pick out presents for each other. He was pretty sure he knew what this was before he even opened it.

Give these boys a sword or gun and they are loving life.

Abby and Alydia were excited about their mermaid dolls that looked just like them.

One of the Haskell Christmas Eve traditions is to open all our gifts to each other after Grandpa reads the Christmas story from the scriptures. Doing this has worked out pretty well. The kids (and adults) get to open a few things and it takes the edge off the excitement so that everyone can sleep faster and better.

Since Grandma and Grandpa Haskell were in Boston this year, we made them stay up late and Grandpa read us the story over speaker phone. Then the kids sang a few Christmas songs to them. The kids all thought this was cool.

Thanks to all our family and friends for making this a great Christmas and for all of your generous gifts to our family!

Pre-Christmas Traditions

Of course we had to keep the Haskell tradition alive of decorating gingerbread houses. The kids had a blast and about as much fun making it as eating all the decorations.

Abby was really into the decorations until she realized she could eat some of them. Then it was a toss up between what went on the house and what went in her mouth.

Peyton sat by the box with all the little sprinkles and stuff. He was the supervisor of those and kept moving them all around and reorganizing them.

Stockton was our frosting man. He kept pretending the frosting bag was a gun.

We took the kids to stay in Salt Lake and see the lights. It was pretty cold and they didn't want to stop walking long enough for many pictures. But the lights were beautiful as always.

Every since we got out the train to go around our Christmas tree, Peyton has picked up a new fascination with trains or "too-too's" as he calls them. Luckily Stockton was really into trains at one time and we saved all the stuff we had. So we were all set up to play trains. He has had so much fun he has played until he dropped.

Another fun thing we always do is go see a train show that a local guy does here in Payson every year at Christmas. We started when Stock was so into trains and the kids have enjoyed it alot. So this year was super fun for Peyton, but they all had a good time looking at all the different trains and backgrounds for them.

No December is complete without a trip to see Santa. And I think every kid has to have at least one picture (or more) crying and trying to get off Santa as fast as they can. I warned Santa before I put Peyton on that this would go down.

Abby and Stockton had their lists ready to tell Santa what they wanted. They couldn't wait to go make sure he knew. Stockton still believes and I hope it lasts a little longer. I found a fun website that let Santa send kids a personal video from him with their names, pictures, and what they wanted, so that made it even more exciting.

We had a wonderful Christmas and got spoiled again this year. I hope that you all had a great holiday too. I will be posting Christmas morning pictures soon.

All The Little Things

I feel so busy every day, but most of the time I can't tell you much that I have done. The kids are busy playing and having fun and making lots of things for me to clean up usually. But I am glad they are active, happy, have lots of friends and good imaginations. As hard as Peyton can be for getting into things and making huge messes, I am glad that he is inquisitive and interested in exploring and doing things. I haven't been very good at updating all the little day to day things we have been doing, but luckily I have taken pictures of some of them. So I will catch you up in one big post.

Peyton has kept me especially busy the last few weeks as he has learned how to take the potty stool all over the house and reach all kinds of new things like light switches, the water lever on the fridge, the silverware drawer, the scissors, screwdrivers, my makeup and the soap from the sinks and tub. It would take too long to tell all the stories associated with these finds, but I am sure you can imagine.

Here is our finished cardboard castle. (explanation below)

I love family fun magazine. They have lots of fun ideas of things to do. Some of my favorite memories of when I was pretty young are making crafty things like this with my mom. I saw this cool cardboard castle in the magazine and thought Stockton would love to make it. We saved all kinds of boxes and packages for weeks and finally put it together. The magazine one was painted and had flags and stuff, but I didn't get that far. (I actually didn't think it would last long enough anyway) They had lots of fun playing legos and polly pockets with it.

Peyton loved Halloween this year. He thought it was so great that you went to all the neighbor houses and held out a bucket and people gave you candy. The next morning, he put part of his costume back on and got his bucket and kept bringing it out for me to put more candy in it. He was disappointed that it didn't work the next day! He just got raisins from the snack drawer.

Falling asleep at the table after a hard day of playing. You've got to love the bobbing head action, gun still in hand.

The kids new favorite game is taking a blanket ride through the house. They don't play "sharks" on the couch very much right now, but always ask dad to take them on blanket rides. Its a little cramped in our house, but they still love it.

Stockton is dreaming of when he can go play in the sandbox again. (Don't mind the red eye here, holy cow!)

Two Yellow Belts

We now have two yellow belt karate students in our home. Stockton's class just did their belt promotions. We actually had the stomach flu and didn't get to go to the ceremony. But Andy got to come home early the other day and so I could go without Peyton and take some pictures during a regular class.

Can I just say how much I love my camera (and the class I took last year so that I know how to use it.) I had so much fun getting these action shots.

This is one of my favorites. Stockton got his flexibility from me. So it takes a lot of effort to get his leg up that high.

Practicing kicking the bags. No tongue sticking out this time??!!!

Concentration!!!

Doing Tie-key-oh-coo-show-don. I don't know how it is really spelled, but that is how you pronounce it phonetically. It is a series of moves leading to some punches.