Holiday Happiness

Merry Christmas! There's no Christmas card this year, but we sure are grateful for the blessings we've received this past year. These kids keep us happy and young at heart. We are so grateful for our family, and the friends who are just like family. We hope you are enjoying your Christmas wherever you might be!

Christmas Friday, right before church

Here are the series of Santa pictures from this year. Everyone was a fan. Although Will is going to be disappointed Christmas morning when he doesn't find the personal i-pad he asked Santa for. He said it in a nice loud voice so all the parents in line could give his parents a hard time about it! (school party)

(church party)

Once was enough for Owen. He'd rather hang out with a friend :) Merry Christmas!

Munchkin Moment II (Tyler)

This guy is at school so often, it seems like we don't get nearly enough time together! We have really been enjoying the 3 week Christmas break, and having Tyler home. This week, it happened: he lost his second front tooth! The other one is growing in already, but we figured it was enough for him to be able to sing "All I Want for Christmas is my Two Front Teeth!"

He is still the ultimate big brother. If I need Owen to hold still for a minute, Tyler is on the job!

He is also good at providing a distraction.

Same smiles :)

Camera timer fun

Hailey wanted in on the action too!

(Will was too busy throwing a huge fit about being woken up from a nap to join in)

Tyler is anxious for Owen to learn how to walk, and tries to help him. Owen thinks it is grand! I think we could wait a little longer...

The other day I pulled THIS out of Tyler's back pack. I was speechless. Don't I have a few more years before anything like this is suposed to happen?!? Who is this girl anyways?! In my "cool, I-don't-really think-this-is-a big-deal-voice" I asked Tyler, and he said she just handed it to him at recess. He said "that's kind of funny, huh mom?" I guess. If I wan't your mom. And didn't want you to stay little forever.

Ken introduced Tyler to a game he used to enjoy playing when he was younger. It is fun to see them playing together, and now Tyler has taught his younger siblings how to play (as much as a 4 year old and 2 year old can handle a strategy game...) Tyler told me he likes it because it is like a computer games, but using his imagination. Yes!

Christmas concert!

He sure makes our lives easier and challenging all at the same time. He's growing so fast though - I need to figure out a way to slow the time down!

Desert Dunes

We finally did it. We went to the sand dunes. Everyone around here talks about going to the dunes -  having bbqs, dune bashing, and just a general good time. Ken had some random day off that no one else had, so we excused Tyler from school (to spend quality time with his family :) and went on the hunt for these elusive sand dunes. Apparently, you have to know where to go. Even though we LIVE in a desert, it isn't as easy as you would initially think. We spent a good deal of time searching, before we took the plunge, drove off the road at some random point, and wandered into the distance where we could clearly SEE the dunes, but no road leading to them. The trip was full of firsts.

First time we saw a truck full of camels. Trust me, this was cause for great excitement and shouting in our car, as everyone begged dad to "follow them and see where they are going!" Maybe the kids shouted loudest, maybe it was me. My memory is kind of hazy on that point...

First camel crossing sign. Seriously, how cool is that?!

And the dunes. It was wonderful, just this calm, peaceful, BEAUTIFUL and perfect place. With oodles of sand. More than even Hailey could possibly need. It was kind of like a kid paradise. They could run off in three different directions, doing whatever they pleased.

These two explorers did not really have time for pictures. Each dune was it's own mountain to explore! At one point, Tyler was sure he had found a snake track and followed it for a very long time. Turned out to be a bug, but still, he was so excited!

As I've mentioned before, Hailey loves sand. This is a dream land for her - she rolled in it, slid down it, ate it (yeah, still working on that one) and basically showered herself with it. Guess who had fun doing the laundry the next day? I'm pretty sure we brought home about 10 pounds of fine sand with us, hidden in our clothes and shoes. My washer still hasn't forgotten it...

Will was just as enthusiastic as Hailey, except he didn't go for eating it.

And it was a photographer's dream. So many ways to see it, so many ways to change the light and colors. I LOVED it!

The dynamic duo, Ken and Owen!

No snow, no problem! You can do the same things in the sand! OK, except the snowman. Yeah, that really doesn't work.

Tyler is eyeing the jump. Will they make it?!?

We thought we'd be there for an hour max, then head home for dinner. We ended up staying 2+ hours

Sand sand everywhere!

Occasionally, Hailey would complain about there being sand in her eyes... Hmm, wonder how that got there??

Heading back to the car for some snacks.

We let Owen out to play. He was one happy baby!

And then a beautiful sunset. 

Best buddies. 

This face is beautiful, even covered in sand!

We found all kinds of cool rocks. Of course, we also had to have a discussion about how to tell if it was camel poop or a rock. Said discussion was held as Will earnestly tried to hand me some camel poop, insisting it was a rock for our collection at home...

 Owen was especially interested - edible or not? (the rocks, I mean :)

I got some fun silhouette shots of Ken throwing Owen in the air, but blogger has decided to be helpful and lighten them up for me. What?! Oh well, I can assure you, the originals are much cooler :)

Out in the distance is the road we started out on.

We left just after the sun set, and the moon peeked out. If I stopped here though, I would be leaving out some of the most memorable parts. Like how, when we loaded everyone up at exactly dinnertime, we discovered our car had sunk in the sand. A lot. To the axels. Like how my oldest started crying and saying we were going to die in the desert. Like how Ken and I had to get out and dig with our hands, and dig and dig. Like how Ken tried to push us out, and like how when we finally got unstuck, we moved a little and got stuck again. And then by some miracle, a worker in a truck found us and returned with 7 guys, and how they dug and pushed us out. Nah, maybe I'll stop before that and just say that in most ways, it was a perfectly fun outing.