Christmas 2009

Great Grandma and Grandpa rented the Lion's club and all the Weston's got together that night. Great Grandma organized a musical show where different members of the family took a part singing or playing a musical instrument. The kids' favorite part was the "snowball" fight!

Grandma and Grandpa Dalton came over and brought the boys a thomas the train set.

All the Christmas activity wore little Ridge right out!

Gunnar was so excited that Santa brought him the grave digger monster truck he had asked for.

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve Dalton and I finished delivering a few neighbor gifts, then my Grandma Marlow stopped by and we exchanged gifts. Every Christmas Eve the elf who has been watching the boys all year brings them a present and leaves it on the front porch: a pair of brand new jammies! Every Christmas Eve we enjoy reading the Christmas story from the bible. We have some flannel Christmas figures the boys hang up to help stay involved while Jake reads the story. We also read Twas the Night before Christmas. I'm really enjoying starting these little traditions with our boys.

The boys set out the milk and cookies by the fireplace where Santa would be sure to see it.

A few days before Christmas Gunnar was playing next door with Kaitlyn and he fell and smacked his chin on their kitchen floor and had to get seven stiches! He was so proud to have "whiskers like his dad!"

Merry Christmas! Love, Ridge

Here's some pictures my sister, Candace, took of Ridge the other day. They turned out so cute!

The other day I went into my room and this is what I saw:

I had not made my bed yet that day, so Dalton made it for me! With this cute little ginger bread man he made at school laying on top! I always check his backpack every day when he gets home, so he had hurried and taken this out without me knowing and hid it under his bed so he could do a secret service and surprise me! What a sweet little boy! When I saw this I cried! A love little moments like this that make everything I do every day as a mother worth it!

Here's a copy of a letter Jake wrote to his sister, Jen, on her mission. It gives a little recap of what we've been up to lately.

Hey Jen, so we just had a great little Sunday evening activity with the boys. Alayna promised them we could make ginger bread houses and they have been looking forward to it for the past couple weeks. So today we finally got around to doing it. Dalton did very well, followed by me, Gunnar, then the worst construction builder of them all, Alayna. She's reading this over my shoulder so it's OK to say how bad hers turned out, at least until I fixed it for her. Anyway, here's a few pictures of them. The decorating was fun, Gunnar ate more than he used on his house.

We had to go to our three hour church block, and then went to Alayna's parents ward to hear her mom speak. I'll tell ya, with three boys, one sacrament meeting is more that enough but two in one day is torture! Both Christmas programs were very nice, though. Alayna's mom is in charge of her ward choir so she did the choir program and spoke. She did a good job. After wrestling the boys through two sacraments we are now recovering by enjoying a nice Sunday together at home with just our little family.

Dalton's birthday was last week. He got your card and was very excited about it. Well, except for the picture of him with a lipstick kiss on his forehead. He has a real hatred toward lip stick. Probably because Dad and I tease him about putting lip stick on. We had a nice time with most everyone over to our house for a little party and dinner. Like always he got way too many toys. A few days later, Alayna took him and a bunch more rambunctious kids to classic fun center. As you'd expect the boys went nuts and had a ball. Again more toys. When it was all said and done, he got 6 toy guns, freakin armory around here.

We've got most of our Christmas shopping done and have enjoyed being ahead of the game for once. A few more small things to get. It's been very cold and snow on the ground for the past couple weeks. It got so cold last week that our pipes almost froze shut in the back mud room. We've been turning on the water every day back there in the shower to keep the pipes open.

I've got three more days of work then I'm off until Jan. 4th. Alayna wants me to get the little 1/2 bath by the kitchen finished. Should be able to do that along with some ice fishing and some sled'n. Last week I had to go to Minneapolis for work. Flew out Monday afternoon and back Tuesday night. A real whirlwind of a trip, but it was good, especially to come home. I hate traveling for work.

Alayna is enjoying her new calling with the young women. They all sang in sacrament meeting today and did a great job, especially with her angelic voice in the mix. (again she's reading over my shoulder!)

The primary also sang in sacrament today. Dalton did a great job! He knew most of the words and sang great! Can't believe Gunnar will be up there with him next year!

Ridge has two teeth now on the bottom. He is very active and ALWAYS smiling. We went out last night for a little sushi and had two girls from the ward baby sit. This was the first time we left him with anyone other than family. They were bragging to all the other girls in young women's that they got to tend him. The girls in young women's all go crazy over him!

Well, we hope you have a great Christmas down there. I know I remember my mission Christmas's very well. Very different than the Hallmark Christmas's at home like you're used to, but a very great day in deed. Hope all is well. Our daily prayers are with you.

Jake (and Alayna over my shoulder says love ya!)

A Little Christmas Cheer!

Make sure you pause the music at the bottom of my blog so you can hear the music that goes with this video:)

Happy Birthday Dalton!

Uncle Randy, Dalton, Grandpa Weston, Great Grandma and Grandpa Weston, Kade, and Gunnar

Kade, Malory, Dalton, Gunnar (sitting on Jake's lap) Randy and Ashley

Great Grandma Marlow and Dalton

Great Grandma and Grandpa Weston and Dalton

I CAN NOT believe my little boy is 6 years old! I told Dalton the story this morning about the day he was born. It really seems like yesterday! I was working at Wells Fargo until late Thursday night Dec. 11, 2003. The next day was our work Christmas party. Dalton was due on Christmas day. I started contractions about midnight and I remember thinking, "dang it, not more braxton hicks I have to work in the morning!" They continued to get worse and closer together so I finally woke Jake up and said we needed to go to the hospital. The nurses checked me and called my OB. My OB called the room we were in and asked to talk to me and he said, "so it looks like you're going to have a baby today!" It was the most exciting, scary, shocking, unreal moment of my life. I knew right then and there that my life would never be the same again. At 3:20 that afternoon Dalton was born. What a blessing he is in my life! Even though it seems like only yesterday he was born, it also seems like he has always been a part of my life, I can not imagine life without him! He is at such a fun age right now. He's like a little sponge, just soaking in everything! He's learning to read and is really good at it already! He's such a good big brother and a good help to me. I can have adult like conversations with him and I really enjoy his company.

Here's a little play by play of Dalton's 6th birthday: The night before he and Gunnar begged us to let them have a sleep over in the big cardboard box they'd been playing for the last couple of days, so they spent the night in the cardboard box. He woke up and Jake asked him what he wanted for breakfast and he said waffles. So Jake made us all a gourmet waffle breakfast. Then we spent some time having Dalton read out his book he brought home from school, then he and Gunnar acted out the book. Then Jake took the boys to Smith and Edwards, Ridge and I went to Jake's cousin's bridal shower, Dalton and Gunnar played while I made soup and cake for Dalton's family party that night, we had family over for soup and breadsticks and cake and icecream, Dalton got spoiled rotten! It was such a fun night being with family and watching the kids play with Dalton's new toys! The funniest thing happened when Dalton opened his present from Jake's grandparents. It was a coloring book with glitter glue markers stuck to the front, but when Dalton started opening it the markers looked like lipstick! He got this mad look on his face and kindof threw the present down. Jake and I were mortified, up until then Dalton had been so gracious giving everyone a big hug and thank you after opening each present. We thought when he did that that he was acting like a little spoiled brat! It took us a second to realize that he thought they had given him lipstick! Once we sorted out the misunderstanding he gave his great grandparents a hug and told them thanks for the coloring book and markers.

Ridge is Now 6 Months old!

Ridge turned 6 months on Saturday! I can't believe how fast the time is flying by! I took him in for his 6 month check up on Monday. He's finally on the chart! He had a major growth spurt which puts him in the 20th percentile for his length. He's still not on the chart for his head and weight yet. He weighs 11 lbs. 5 oz. He had to get shots, which was pure misery for both of us. He was cranky for about three days afterwards!

Ridge is really starting to get his personality: he's laughing, and cooing and talking, he loves his big brothers, he smiles every time he sees them. He has this toy that goes over top of him and plays music and he can hit these things with his hands to change the songs. He gets so excited every time I turn it on, he loves it! At first he would change the music with his feet, but now he's more coordinated with his hands. He's just about ready to roll all the way over. He can scoot himself all the way around in a 360. The other night Jake and I were watching a movie and Ridge was laying on the floor next to the couch and the boys' train table. Next thing we know Ridge had scooted himself partially under the train table and was lifting the train table up with his legs! I love this stage. He's not old enough to get into things and make messes, he doesn't smart off or fight with his brothers, and he lets me hug and kiss him whenever I want! Ridge can also now give kisses, I love it! Jake thinks it's really gross, he says he's not really giving kisses he's just trying to suck on your cheek!

Turkey Day!

This Thanksgiving we spent with my side of the family. We rotate between Jake's side and my side every other year. We had Thanksgiving at our house this year. We had my parents, sisters and spouses (and Brandon- Laura's soon to be spouse), my nephew Kade, neice Kynlee, and my Grandma Dalton and Grandma Marlow. I made my Grandma Dalton's famous candied yams, an orange jello, and Jake and I made a bananna cream pie. I think I've gained five pounds!

Candace took some pictures, I'm hoping she'll email me some. I did get a picture of Dalton and Gunnar breaking the wishbone later that night. Gunnar was way excited to "win" because he got the bigger piece.