Our Christmas

Wow, Christmas is over????

On Christmas Eve, we spent the evening at John's mom's house. The kids performed the annual nativity. As usual, Easton was not very into it...I had to be Mary's nanny to get him to stay. Coleton was a great Shepard, and Hailey took her job as an angel very seriously.

On Christmas morning, Hailey woke up at 5:00. We made her wait until 6:30 to wake up the boys..I am sure it was the longest morning of her life. The kids made a haul. Easton actually got into the present opening action.

We ended up not visiting our Grandmas this year on Christmas day, the first time in my life, but it took us way too long to dig out with all of the snow we received.

We did make it to John's mom's and then to my parents.

At the Jensen party on Christmas night, the kids got to play Away in a Manger with the bells at one of my mom's friends houses. She is sick with cancer. The kids loved it. Then, we went back to grandmas and my parents had made everyone marshmallow guns. Oh the mess....but it was fun. Easton just walked around and ate all of the marshmallows off of the floor. Hailey would have nothing to do with it, and Coleton loved it!

We had a great Christmas! My favorite part was on Tuesday night before Christmas. Our little family had an evening dedicated to Jesus. We talked about the nativity story and I know that the kids felt the spirit, that made my whole Christmas!

OUR STOCKINGS ARE HUNG BY THE CHIMNEY WITH CARE, IN HOPES THAT SAINT NICHOLAS SOON WILL BE HERE.....

Coleton's Preschool Program

On Friday Coleton had his preschool program. It was SO FUNNY! Coleton had his part memorized....."His eyes how they twinkled, his dimples how merry, his cheeks were like roses his nose like a cherry, his droll little mouth was turned up like a bow, the beard on his chin is as white as the snow." He delivered it with emotion...and it was so cute! Sitting and singing the songs were a little hard for him though. At one point he and a buddy were using the antlers on their heads to fight, another time he was pulling faces..(Too bad I am having trauma pulling the pictures off of my video camera because it was hilarious.) Coleton is for sure our family clown! Who knows, maybe one day he will take something seriously!

The OLD gray man is another YEAR older!!!!

Happy Birthday John!!! We love you!!!

Hoppin' on the PRIVATE bandwagon!

So everyone has got me freaked out to the point of nightmares, so I am going to be making our blog private here pretty soon. If you want to be invited, just leave your email in the comments section, or email me at winnfamily4@juno.com.

So Much to be Thankful For

Happy Thanksgiving. At this time of year, I always like to reflect on the things I am thankful for. I of course am so thankful for my husband and his love for me. I am thankful that Heavenly Father entrusts me with three of his beautiful children...I am thankful for their craziness and thankful that every night I go to bed completely exhausted from chasing them all day. And of course I am thankful for when John is home to take the kids up to bed....This year especially I am thankful to be able to LAUGH and hear the sound of sweet LAUGHTER.

I asked my kids what they are thankful for:

Hailey..with a sweet smile...my family and Jesus

Coleton...sleep..movies...and I don't know (tells you a whole lot about him)

Easton..(I took the liberty of helping him) Throwing food on the floor... screaming at strangers when they look at me in the store (who cares if I am cute and people are looking at me....I don't want them to.)

John...another one of the kids I guess...is thankful for his Family and BYU (my goodness....seriously John)

Way To Go Hailey!

Hailey choreographed and performed a dance for the REFLECTIONS contest at her school, and she won 1st place! Way to go Hailey....We are so proud of you!

Bye Bye BINKY

I think that it is TRUE...the more kids you have, the more laid back you become....I didn't let Hailey or Coleton stay attached to BABY stuff this long, but because Easton is my baby, he got to be one for longer.
I FINALLY took Easton's binky away yesterday. He is 15 months old, and honestly, if he would use words instead of scream when he wants something, he could have kept his binky FOREVER, but I am so ready for him to talk. Luckily, he has only asked for it twice...not with words, just the "b" sound and pointing to his mouth...followed of course by a very loud scream! But hip hip hooray it is gone and we made it through the first night....only 3 minutes of crying and then he slept until 6 am this morning!

The mind of a 3 year old

Coleton: "Mom, when is Jesus going to be home?"
Me: "Home????"
Coleton: "Yeah, when is he going to be at the church so I can see him?"

Our Fun CRAZY Weekend

I can't believe that it is Wednesday and I am just now getting around to adding our weekend fun to this blog, but it has taken me that long to recover!
It all started Friday morning. My friend Holly and I went to the cannery and canned jam. It was fun....and I can honestly say that I will never look at a can of Jam again without laughing at the label. Thanks Holly!
After school, we took the kids to Trick or Treat Street....the kids had a great time, but I thought it was way expensive for what it was. (and, worst of all they got too much candy before Halloween, so all they have done since then is eat candy :)



Here are the cute kids at Trick or Treat Street!

On Saturday, John's cute neice had a Halloween party. It was fun and Kylie, I can't believe how much time you spent on this party. Thanks so much! We had a blast.

Look how cute Easton is...and smiling in costume...amazing!
The mummy wrap.....good job Coleton and Hailey, but Easton and Chloe won!

Just thought i'd throw this picture of a wanna be pirate in.

Cookie decorating.

After this party we went straight to the ward party and guess what, the kids ate more sugar! By Sunday, needless to say my kids were on a sugar high and Sacrament Meeting was interesting. Thank heavens for the cute Bishops wife who saved me...and my kids. :)

Hailey's Story

Hailey wrote a story while she was off track....pretty good for a first grader! (I am typing exactly what she wrote, so you'll have to sound out the words.)

The Balreenu By: Hailey Winn
Lily went to dance. She whus the best dancer you know but she...

just cud not do a backwocovre. (backwalkover) Her teecher was nise, but her mom....

whus not. She said due a bacwocovre but she said i chride.(tried)

Finlee she did it. Her teechr was happy. Her mom was nise.

ilustratide by: Hailey Winn

Do you think she thinks her mom is mean??????

Does it get any SWEETER?

Last night Easton crashed in Hailey's Princess Chair. I was gone and John thought it was so cute that he took a picture...Good Job John!

The CAT in the HAT in a whole new LIGHT

Last night I was putting the boys to bed when DR. SEUSS' THE CAT IN THE HAT brought a whole new dimension of FUN to our lives. Coleton picked the book to read, so I sat in the rocking chair with Coleton on one leg and Easton on the other and began reading...."The sun did not shine. It was too wet to play..." We got to the part "Lots of good fun that is FUNNY......a lot of good TRICKS. I will show them to you." Immediately, I could feel the EXCITEMENT coming from Coleton when the words FUNNY & TRICKS were said....(the light started to come on in my head.) We continue on with the story... When I saw the picture of the cat STANDING on a ball balancing a fish in a bowl and other items the light totally came on in my head.....Coleton is going to try to BALANCE on a ball holding a glass bowl full of water!!!! " 'HAVE NO FEAR!' said the cat. 'I will not let you fall. I will hold you up high as I stand on a ball...." I asked Coleton if he thought this trick was neat to which he replied, "YES, I AM GOING TO TRY IT."

I am going to have to keep a CLOSE eye on him today because I know that just TELLING him about the HUGE mess it would make and the BROKEN HEAD it will cause, will not deter him from actually trying it! It should be an interesting day!

PUMPKIN PATCH

Today was Coleton's Preschool Field Trip to the PUMPKIN PATCH. We had a FUN time! A real live PIRATE told the kids a story, then they got to play on a PIRATE SHIP. Coleton loved the pirate ship..notice he is covering one eye. Sometimes I think Boys are so WEIRD!!!!!!

They got to hunt for some things including a TREASURE BOX.

YES...Coleton picked out the WEIRDEST pumpkin in the whole patch. He said it looked like a SPIDER. Is it even a pumpkin?

Tomatoes Anyone?

My tomatoes ripened just in the nick of time. Last week I helped...well I was there...make salsa at my grandma's house, and today I canned some tomatoes all by myself. If we get sick this winter, we will know why!

oh what do YOU do in the AUTUMN time?

FALL is definitely here, the MORNING AIR is crisp, our FALL PANSIES are planted, my fall DECOR is up, John has been watching FOOTBALL every Saturday, and what did we do today?

WE WENT SWIMMING.........YIKES!

The sun was shining, the water was warm, and the kids had a blast! Thank heavens for the last few warm days of the year!

It doesn't get more relaxing than this!

One of these things is just like the other one!

This post is kind of random, but I wanted to mention these things mostly for family journaling purposes.

Coleton is a clone of John. He eats just as slow as John does, he loves to make people laugh just like John does, and he insists on mowing the lawn with John. (Notice he is turning right when John is.)
Hailey is playing soccer, and I have been amazed that this year she has gotten into it.....until last Saturday. She really didn't want to play....she was too busy working on her heal stretches on the sidelines. (Sorry John, she just might take after her mother!)

Look at his eyes! Every time I look at him, I just smile at how cute he is! He has started walking more than he crawls....this picture was taken right before he fell on the cement and got a nice scratch on his head.

a QUIET morning?

This morning was one of the weirdest mornings of my life, seriously. John left for work, I sent Hailey on the bus to school, twenty minutes later I sent Coleton to preschool with the carpool, cleaned up breakfast and then put Easton down for a nap. I shut Easton's bedroom door and stood in the hall thinking now what? The house was quiet for two hours. I walked around like a lost puppy! I finally decided I might as well enjoy the time and pulled out some sewing. (The project from last Christmas that I never finished.) I am honestly not sure how to feel about my kids getting so old! Part of me is excited and part of me is just plain sick!

Preschool!!!

Today was Coletons first day of preschool. He has been counting down the days for school to start. On the way to school, he kept telling me over and over that he was going to cut paper with scissors. (His mean mom doesn't let him use scissors unless she is right there watching...for good reason let me assure you.) When we got to school, he got a little nervous until he saw his buddy Coleman.

He had a great time at school. He told me he got to cut ...(of course) "there was a ton of scissors at school", paint, and play with snakes and a "hot shot race car that had eyes that is not Lightening McQueen." He also told me his teacher had a pointer that is not a toy..(Oh I wonder if he was playing with it????) that she pointed to the letters with. He couldn't remember the rules that they talked about, not a good sign. I had to laugh that he didn't know the rules because that is the first thing Hailey ever remembers and she can always quote the rules word for word.

Look at the pure joy on his face standing there with his painting project.

Labor Day Fun

We had a GREAT Labor Day. Don't worry, it is MONDAY, so I spent the morning cleaning the house while John WHINED that he hated having Monday's off work because then he had to help CLEAN. (He helped by pulling on the vacuum cord while I was attempting to vacuum, and making sure the shelf scarf was NOT straight, etc.) After the house was SPOTLESS, we went to the Zoo. Luckily, the weather cooperated and we had a great time. Easton called every animal we saw a DOG, but hey, for him that is pretty impressive. Hailey told us she is totally not into MONKEYS, and wanted to see the other animals, and apparently, Coleton is afraid of Gorilla Statues. He had a fit when we wanted him to sit on the shoulder of the Gorilla in the picture. John is standing behind to hang onto Coleton so he would sit there. (What we won't do for a picture.) When we were walking away from the statue, John said to Coleton, "THE GORILLAS ALIVE," and Coleton jumped ten feet high. He did not think John was funny. After the zoo, we celebrated my nieces birthday. HAPPY BIRTHDAY MIKALYN! I can't believe how old you are getting.

New Pictures of Easton

So I FINALLY took Easton to get his one year old pictures taken. I have been dreading the whole picture thing because we have never had a great experience with a photographer trying to make him smile...he always just screams at the strange person looking at him. Today he was so funny. The photographer would squeak the duck at him and he would laugh so hard and crinkle his nose.

Fathers and Sons

John took Coleton to Fathers and Sons last night. Coleton was so excited to go. He kept telling everyone that his Dad was taking him hunting. We kept explaining the difference between hunting and camping, and Coleton just kept saying that Dad could use his gun.(It's a nerf gun, and I am sure that John would have been very successful with it.) Anyway, on Friday morning Coleton woke up early. (Coleton loves to sleep in and we are so loud in the mornings that he gets out of bed, shuts his door and then goes back to sleep.) About lunch time he told me he was tired, so I told him if he had a nap he would be able to stay up late with dad. He went running up to his bed and slept for two hours. When they finally got to the campground, they had a blast. They made smores, watched a movie, and played games. They did go on a grasshopper hunt...thank heavens John is creative so that Coleton wasn't disappointed. Coleton loved the fact that on Saturday he woke up before John did so he got to "wake up his dad." I had to laugh when Coleton and John got home, Coleton was talking in a deep, tough voice and strutting around. He thinks he is pretty cool after spending the night with just guys.