Road Trip

We had such a fun weekend. On Friday we headed down to St. George for my cousin Adam's wedding. It was awesome. We actually left early Friday morning and got to the temple in St. George with like 15 minutes before the sealing. My mom and dad drove with us. On the way down and I was a little stressed abouth how the boys would do on the drive but they were surprisingly really good. We didn't even have to put in a movie till there was like an hour left to go.

Saturday was the BYU bowl game. We heard it was going to be really cold so I packed my boys snow gear. I'm glad I did because I didn't hear them complain about being cold once. We had a couple of cousins join us at the game and some of Koki's family. It's fun to go to a game in numbers. I will say I do think BYU fans need help cheering. The Arizona fans were going crazy. Their band was going the whole time and I swear the crowd wouldn't stop dancing. Then there was our side of the stadium. I realize we didn't have too much to be excited about BUT still can we act like we're enjoying being at the game. I swear something needs to be done about the cheering before next year. It might help the team if the players heard their fans in the stand once in a while. After the game we all went to In N Out. That is my families favorite place to stop. Gideon and Isaac fell asleep within seconds of being there. It made it nice for Koki and me to eat and actually talk to everyone rather than wrestle with them.

Sunday we spent time at Ulu's house. My boys love their cousins. Isaac adores Devon. I think it's because Devon gives Isaac serious one on one time. Ulu's kids entertained my kids so well that I took a 2 hour nap. It was great. Even after the nap they were still playing.

So that about sums up the weekend. Lots of fun in a little amount of time.

Santa

The first Christmas Koki and I had together we bought our Christmas tree on Christmas Eve. I was actually the grinch that year and told him we didn't need one. We weren't going to be home on Christmas Day and it was just a waste of money. But when we went out on Christmas Eve and the trees were 50% off I gave in to my husband's holiday request. Now don't get all crazy on me. This was 6 years ago. Things have thankfully changed.

This year I was the one riding my husband to hurry and get the tree out and our lights up. It's really fun to celebrate the holidays and establish traditions with kids. Koki and I have tried to take some of both families traditions and make our own. Some things still need tweaking but for the most part I think we're on the right road. Last night we had a conversation about Santa. We have been watching tons and tons of Christmas movies all month (a tradition from Koki's family) and Gideon is really starting to be aware of Santa. I love the idea of Santa I think it's great BUT when Gideon is starting to say," Oh,we don't do that because Jesus, Heavenly Father, and SANTA don't want us to?" I'd rather stick with teaching him to follow Jesus not necessarily Santa.

Am I over thinking this? It really could be a simple thing for my four year old and wanting to follow Santa isn't bad it's just that I'd rather him have Jesus be his main example. I'm a mess. I want him to have fun with the Santa thing too. What to do? I know it really doesn't need to be this complicated. I guess I have a talent for making simple things become a catastrophe. Okay now I am just giving myself a headache. Am I making sense to anyone? I promise my future blogs won't be this hard to follow.

A Singer in the Family

Koki has been singing with this same group of friends since college. I always love listening to them. Last night they sang at the Varner's ward Christmas party. As you can tell by the beautiful background noise there were a ton of kids there. I still thought they did an awesome job. Props to Sam for being able to sing and play the guitar in the same mic. Next time we'll have to find an extra mic for him.

Did ya miss me???

I can't believe a whole month went by without a single post from me. I am going to blame it on the lack of a camera. It seriously isn't as fun blogging without having pictures to go with it. Luckily a new camera is on the way so my blogging famine has almost come to an end.

Here is what I missed blogging about during November...

*Last minute trip with my mom and sister to St. Louis to see my brother CJ for fun

*Koki playing Mr. Mom for three days while I was gone

*Jarom stopped nursing. Yay and Owww at the same time

*Isaac found a new obsession with Spider Man

* Gideon had his first primary program. The first half he did great, the second half he sat on my lap with the grumpiest face.

* Jarom started to crawl

*Koki survived being the mom/dad and has a new found appreciation for his wife ;)))

*Utah vs. BYU game- we all know how this ended. I stayed home with the kids cause I am seriosly AFRAID of the Ute fans. Drunk people don't make the nicest fans.

*Isaac now loves to jump off of everything in my house ie.tables, chairs, couches. My mom would be so disappointed in my lack of parenting abilities to control my 2 year old from jumping. I swear we have a different breed of two years these days :)

*Gideon learned how to play on the computer. A blessing and a curse.

*Jarom sits up- Can you believe in one month how much my baby has grown? And I didn't have a camera to capture it. SHAME SHAME SHAME!

*Thanksgiving- we did our annual thanksgiving dinner at my sisters church. We played every sport you can think of soccer, v-ball, basketball, dodgeball...you thought I was kidding didn't you.

*Black Friday- This was my first black friday experience. Koki was going to wake up with me but when I told him to wake up at 4 in the morning he told me he better stay home cause he wouldn't want the boys to wake up crying for his mom. (Now he wants to be son of the year ;)

So I think that's about it. See why it's so important to blog on a regular basis. A LOT can happen in one month. (btw the picture at the top is old but I needed something right????)