Merry Christmas!

We have had the most wonderful Christmas. We have been lucky enough to have Justin's Mom and Dad here. They drove through all the snow and weather to share Christmas with us. We started our festivities on Christmas Eve with a Turkey dinner, and decorated some cookies for Santa! Opened up new pj's, On Christmas Day we went to the movie "Bedtime Stories". Our friends rented the theatre for customer appreciation Day. We loved the movie, and won a BB gun in a drawing after! It was fun! Here are some pics highlighting the events. We love to read "The Jolly Old Santa Claus" book. I have read it every Christmas Eve since I was old enough to remember. I laugh at the expressions on the kids faces in this pic. Don't they look so excited? ha ha ha.

Decorating cookies for Santa. Wow look at Tyra's creation. The carrots are for Rudolph.

This is the kind of excitement we saw all morning from all the kids. They are at such fun ages! Kennedi and Stetson were so excited to get their Nintendo DS.

Tyra was so funny. She was the last to open any of her presents. She has been riding her bike around in the house all day! She was just excited about everything this year.

Maverick was plum happy with his candy cane and apple he found in his stocking! He finally got around to opening his presents!

The kids got cool nerf guns. What is Christmas morning without a nerf gun?

Maverick got a bunch of cool farm animals from Justin's Mom and Dad. They sure did spoil us this year. Thank You!

Maverick needed a little coaxing from big brother to open his presents. Stetson got a super cool hot wheels deluxe trick trax. We played with it all morning. I was too busy playing to get any pics.!

On Christmas Day we always have a cake (well sort of) and sing Happy Birthday to Jesus. Justin's family has always had this tradition so we adopted it. Thanks Cozy for bringing the cupcakes!

Doing great in 2008.

I am a little late getting out my Christmas cards this year,(I am mailing them tomorrow). I am including this poem with my cards, and thought I would post it.

Doing Great in 2008

Twas the night before Christmas and all through the land,
The children played outside in the sun and the sand.
We’ve lived in Mesquite for almost five years,
We like it here, especially as Christmas draws near.
Four children we nestle all snug in their beds
While visions of grandma’s house dance in their heads.
Kennedi is oldest the ripe age of nine,
She’s growing up fast and looking quite fine.
A concert pianist she wants to be some day,
If she keeps up the practice one day it will pay.
She gets straight A’s, never a B,
Her favorite subject is math ,(she didn’t get it from me).
She loves to swim and watched the Olympics,
Michael Phelps she thought was absolutely terrific.
Stetson is next, in August he turned seven.
He’s such a good boy, for that we thank Heaven.
He’s the smartest in his class and loves to read,
If only we could get him to eat more good feed.
He’s on the small side, but has a heart of gold,
He gives 110% of what ever he’s told.
He likes soccer, swimming, and football for sports.
If the Steelers loose a game he’s all out of sorts.
Tyra ,oh Tyra what can I say,
She brings to us sunshine every single day!
She goes to pre-school, and likes anything girly,
She loves to dance and does lot’s of twirlies.
Tyra is also, a little rhyming fool,
She helped with this poem, now isn’t that cool?
Maverick, the baby, is a jolly little elf.
He’s such a funny boy, I just laugh to myself.
I love that he is my mamas boy.
Anything Star Wars is his favorite toy.
He’s two and a half and just started talking,
It’s Darth Vader he loves to walk around mocking.
We’ve had a great year we can’t complain,
Rocky Mountain Lending, Justin tries to maintain.
We had some great trips here are a few….
Disneyland, Trek, and a Mexian cruise.
Justins’ still in the bishopbric , and loves to serve,
Of the Lord’s blessing we hope we deserve.
He loves to play ball of any kind,
And go to Montana, (oh no, I don’t mind).
He completed the Fire Academy here in Mesquite
It was truly, a very, remarkable feat.
As for me, I stay busy with kids and the new dog,
If I’m lucky, I love to find time for a jog.
I love my new calling, ward Enrichment Leader,
It’s all a balancing act, I hope I don’t teeter!
So now I’ll exclaim as I finish this rhyme
Merry Christmas to all and to all a good time!

Love, The Ludvigson Family

Up and Running Again!

I finally got my computer up and running again. I need a new one so bad. I don't have time to post now, but i will within the next day or two.

Disneyland Rocks....

We had a great time in California last weekend. This was the first time we have ever gone to Disneyland with just our little family, and it was a wonderful trip. We went to Disneyland the first day, California Adventure the 2nd day, and then the Beach and Benihanna's for dinner on the 3rd day.

Kennedi was so excited to see Jessie. They have some common bond because they both have red hair. They do kind of look alike.

Waiting for the parade to start. The parades are my favorite part of Disneyland. They are so magical and fun.

They had some of the Christmas decorations up, but not all of them.

The kids loved looking for the characters and getting their autographs.

I thought this picture was great, especially since Justin has been dawning the lovely turnouts every Saturday while going through the fire academy. I think he's having a mid life crises and wants to be a firefighter (just volunteer on the side), the good news is that out of 10 weeks there are only 3 left! Hallelujah!

Yes, Tyra is in her Pj's. We went back to the hotel for dinner and a little siesta before returning to the park for the fireworks and Fantasmic show. The jammy's were actually a sensible choice considering 10 min. after the photo Tyra was out cold, and slept through everything.

Bugs Life was every ones favorite attraction. I thought Tyra and Mav would be scared, but they loved it and haven't quit talking about it.

How can you go to California and not visit the beach? Even if it is on the cold side. We went to Hunnington Beach and spent the day playing in the sand, making sand castles, jumping over waves, and chasing seagulls. It was a great day.

I had a hard time in the sandcastle building department. I broke the bucket we were using to mold the castle. Needless to say the kids were not too happy about that. It still turned out pretty cool.

Catch Up.......

I have been having some technical difficulties with my computer, so I haven't posted anything for a while. I am playng catch up a little bit. We just got back from Disneyland! We had a wonderful trip! I will post about out trip in a couple of days. I wanted to catch up with our Halloween celebrations. No trick or treating or costumes for us this year! We got together with 4 families and went to Kolob (on church owned property we reserved) for Halloween. The kids were out of school that day so we left early and just spent the entire day in the mountains, riding 4 wheelers, doing the zip line, the shooting range, obstacle courses, telling ghost stories around the camp fire, and roasting smores. It was the best Halloween ever. None of my children were sad about missing trick or treating, and no candy (no hyper activity or cavities), no costumes (they didn't dress up at school either) Just plain old fashioned family fun! I want to make it a tradition! We had a great time.

Stetson and Kennedi had a blast riding around camp on this little 3 wheeler! The Covey's brought it up. I was so much fun.

Some of the girls on the four wheeler! They had a great time cruising around on all of the little trails.

Justin entertained the kids with ghost stories, although it ended up being more humorous than scary. The kids loved it.

Go Stetson! He loved the zip Line. It was super fun for the kids. Thanks Dave for bringing up all the gear!


Kennedi on the zip line.


Even Tyra got in on the action. She loved the zip line! Thanks Jeff for taking her on it.



The tire swing was Mavericks favorite part of the day. He loved swinging, and swung on them until his hands couldn't grip the rope anymore!.

Prisoner of the Bar Stool......

Tyra got her head stuck in the bar stool today. She was sitting on it and somehow got her whole body through the back of the stool until she got to her head. She was starting to panic and so was I after several failed attempts to get her shoulders back through. I called Justin at work in a panic. He rushed home, but just as he got there I had to do this to get her out.........

I had to unscrew the back of the chair, and completely take it apart.

Oh, Boy!! It is pretty funny looking back at it now!

Staheli Farm and Corn Maze.....

We go out to Staheli Farm every year. http://www.stahelifamilyfarm.com/ It's in St. George, and the kids love it. This year they added this swing they made on the horse walker. They made these "horses" out of a tire, and Justin would pull the rope and spin the walker around. We couldn't get Maverick off! This is Stetson flying on the "Hick Trampoline" It is three mattresses stacked up on top of each other with straw bales surrounding it.

The slide was fun too. You land in a deep pile of silage. It really shoots you out of the slide.

Even Justin got in on the action, riding the cow train with Maverick. He couldn't fit all the way in, and after we realized he had picked the smallest barrel. It looked pretty funny!

The" plan of attack" for the corn maze. The kids took turns leading the way until it was starting to get dark and we were completely lost, so Justin took over.

In the corn Maze.

Riding out to the pumpkin patch on a wagon pulled by Clydesdale's!

A family came all dressed up like the Star Wars characters. We had to get a quick picture, Maverick is obsessed but was a little scared of Chewy at first.

Froggy Princess Party!

For Tyra's little birthday party with her friends, we had a Froggy Princess Party! It was so much fun to see all of the girls in their beautiful princess gowns. We had these cute little froggy cupcakes.

The girls decorated princess crowns and wands!

Here are all of the beautiful princesses. L to R Tyra, Emma, Kennedi, Esee, Riley, Grace.

Then we played pin the kiss on the frog.

Here is the Birthday girl!

Happy Birthday Tyra!

Tyra turned 4 going on 16 today! She is such a sweet little thing. I love being able to be home with her and hear her cute little voice all day long! She keeps me laughing that is for sure. Kennedi and Stetson were so cute. They wanted to start her day out with panCAKES (we even put candles in them) and all of her presents wrapped and waiting for her when she woke up! Tyra thought she was pretty special she got to wear the "birthday hat" today. We only get it out on birthdays!

Notice the Mickey Mouse pancakes. She had to have two baby ones. Am I a pancake artist or what? The kids tease me because i am not as good as Justin, (he really is an accomplished pancake artist, I will have to do a post with some of his art work).

After breakfast we opened up presents! Tyra got a new baby that breathes. It is really cute. She loves it! She also got all of the baby furniture (stroller, high chair, swing etc.) to go with it. They played house all morning. It is fun to see all the kids in imagination play mode!

Later we went bowling and to the arcade. It was fun, and long. It would take FOREVER for the kids balls to make it down the alley. At any rate we all had a great time, especially Maverick.....

The first few turns he wouldn't let me help him get his ball to the line to roll it. He would push it and scoot along on his knees the whole way. Finally he got frustrated that it was taking so long (and believe, me so was I) that he picked the up the ball and waddled all the way there and chucked it down the lane. He was so funny! He would sit there FOREVER and watch his ball creep it's way down the lane, and then laugh and cheer when the pins would fall!

After bowling we went to the dollar movie to see "Wally". It was just ok, It didn't keep Mavericks attention, but the other kids seemed to like it well enough. The best part was hearing Mav say Waaaly.......and Eeeeeva, all night long.

After the movie we came home and had cake and ice cream. Tyra wanted a princess cake.... so I made this one that turned out pretty cute! Tyra wouldn't let us cut it, so we ate the left over pieces I had saved.

What a fun day!

WE LOVE YOU TYRA!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!