It's a JOLLY holiday.....

On Christmas Eve we spent the evening with John's family. The kids acted out the nativity. This year there was a way cute star, a bale of hay and a shepard that rode a donkey??? Each year it seems to get more creative.

Our sad shepard boy who did not want to be dressed up!

Coleton the shepard riding a donkey to see baby Jesus....(i am pretty sure that Mary was supposed to ride the donkey????)

All of the cousins

There is nothing like wresting in the wrapping paper

The annual Christmas Jammies. When Coleton opened his, he was so disappointed that it wasn't a toy. Apparently he hasn't realized that is what he opens every year on Christmas Eve. I love this picture because it shows so much personality.

Christmas Morning

What did Santa bring...oh the suspence was killing them!

Exploring what Santa left!

Easton playing with his fire/police house

Hailey with her "real" digital camera

Easton's favorite toy...a garbage truck

Easton and a dino
Poor Coleton...I didn't take any pictures of him opening gifts. He got some transformers and a remote control car that can go on water...(the requests that kid has....)

On Tuesday we were able to go to Soldier Hollow tubing. It was a blast. We left Easton at grandmas house where it was nice and warm and the rest of us braved the cold and loved every second of it.

Coleton all bundled up ready to go

The pink marshmellow girl....oh I love that she LOVES pink!

Relaxing on the way up the hill

All Coleton needed was some hot chocolate and he would have been set. Aunt Marquel would pull him on his tube and get him hooked to the rope and then she would pull him to the hill and push him down. The lucky kid hardly had to get off his tube. No wonder he thinks she is the greatest....that and she drives fast:)

All of us at the top of the hill.

Happy Graduation Easton!

Easton graduated from speech therapy on Friday! He is doing phenominal. The progress he has made over the last 6 months has been amazing.
Here are his stats from before and after....
before/ after
Gross Motor 37%/ 99% percentile for age
Fine Motor 50%/ 92%
Cognitive 56%/ 73%
Receptive Lang. 75%/ 82%
Expressive Lang. less than 1%/ 82%****HOORAY*****
Social 43%/ 43% peer 95%
***He really does not handle large crowds at all, but he
is nice to the kids in nursery now, so we are making
progress!
adaptive 16%/ 99%
Easton knows most of his colors and shapes and all of his letters and numbers to 9. He is very interested in the letter sounds which makes me laugh. He comes up to me holding a letter and say, "Mom, what that say." He is so much happier most of the time and loves to laugh and make us laugh. We are so proud of you Easton!

Coleton's Preschool Program

Coleton had his preschool program on Friday. He did a great job and we found he really isn't bothered being in front of a lot of people. He sang his little heart out and danced like a crazy man!

Coleton saying his part.

Austin, Coleman, Coleton, Jones, and Dylan....That doesn't look like trouble at all does it???

WINTER WONDERLAND

One of our favorite things about winter is sledding at the hill by our house. Even though it was FREEZING...literally like below freezing, we braved the cold,(checked Hailey out of school..shhhh!), and headed out. Easton amazed us and loved sledding and eating the snow. He would fall down, put his head in the snow, and then declare, "delicious!" Coleton and Hailey loved riding down on Johns back. Their faces shone with pure delight, but I couldn't make myself take my gloves off again to take pictures...maybe next time.

Because the Bathroom Floor is more COMFORTABLE than a bed?

Fall 2009

I know it has been FOREVER since I posted, but I have had sooo much to post that I just haven't wanted to take the time to do it! (I am becoming quite the procrastinator....yikes!)

We were so excited for the first snowfall way back before Halloween. Coleton waited all day for John to get home because he wanted to hit him with a snowball....oh the love around this house! Of course the minute that John starts throwing snowballs, the neighborhood comes alive!



It is official....John and I are now a GREAT UNCLE and AUNT....John's niece just had a darling baby girl! We had a shower for her and it was so fun to plan. She wanted a book shower because she did not know the gender of the baby. We went with a Dr Seuss theme. The invites were little books with a poem inside, and the food all coordinated with Dr Seuss books. I only took a few pictures, but here they are....


We had a fun Halloween. We ate our traditional pumpkin stew...well the adults ate the pumpkin stew and the kids ate pizza. Hailey informed me that the stew is the only thing she really doesn't like about Halloween. Hailey was a "Twilight Tiger", Coleton was a dinosaur, and Easton was supposed to be Tigger, but he would not wear his costume, so I settled on his Superman cape. (You can tell he is the third child, at this point it is really not worth the fight...right??) Coleton was very specific that he wanted to be a brown dinosaur with green spikes and a club on the tail. I ended up making his costume. It was so fun for me and I hope next year to make all 3 of the costumes...if Hailey will let me that is :0

Here is the very large trick or treating group!

The costumes

Our pumpkins. The kids will not put their hands into a pumpkin so John and I carve and the kids paint.

After trick or treating we go to my mom and dads and they give the kids matching jammies....one of our favorite traditions.

LOST....

Yesterday evening we decided to go up to Copperton Park and enjoy the nice weather. We played on the playground with the kids and ran around the entire park. We made a huge pile of leaves, jumped in it covered each other with it, etc. We came home got the kids in bed and John and I were watching old reruns of The Office when I noticed I did not have my wedding ring on. We searched everywhere in our house. I knew I didn't take it off anywhere. I started to get so upset and worried. John just kept telling me, "it's OK, it's just a ring....", but I was sick. I prayed like crazy that I would find the ring and I know John was as well. A little after 10:00pm I remembered that while we were playing in the leaves something kind of heavy hit my foot. (I was in flip flops and I thought, that was a heavy leaf...) I told John and I told him that I had to go look. He told me there was no way I was going to find it in the dark. He told me just to wait until morning and then go look. I tried to go to sleep, but I was too worried that maybe they would mow the lawn before I could get up there or that a raccoon would find it, etc. I begged him to let me just go look. He kept saying you can't go up there by yourself and I can't go with you because the kids are asleep. I finally text my cute friend that lives two houses down from me. I am sure she was thinking I was crazy, but she dropped what she was doing without any questions, grabbed her shoes and a flashlight and off we went to Copperton Park.
We searched for a little bit where I thought it was and didn't find it. We decided to re-trace my steps. We went over by the swings where I was with Easton, and then to the monkey bars where I crossed with Coleton. I remembered that when I crossed the bars my ring pinched my hand. When I remembered that I knew the ring had to be at that park. We went back over to the leaves and we found the ring. I happened to be on the phone with John when I found it and I started to cry and he was in shock I think and couldn't say anything. Kristin and I where both in tears. I am so thankful that we found the ring and that even though it was late and Kristin had been helping other people literally all day that she came with me to help me find it.
I think of the small chance we had to find it in the pitch black in a huge park with millions of leaves on the ground. I know that Heavenly Father knew it was important to me and he answered my prayer.

Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream

Saturday morning John and I woke up and realized we did not have anything we HAD to do. Immediately I started listing off projects I wanted to do and John just looked at me like I was crazy...in reality I know he just wanted to spend the day watching college football, and really who can blame him. After suggesting that we accomplish HUGE projects, he finally settled on letting me paint the living room (while he watched football :)
Well I think the truth is I must have been subconsciously craving one of my favorite flavors of ice cream....mint chocolate chip. Every time I walk into the living room I think of ice cream...am I crazy or is that what it looks like????

CUTE-CUTE-CUTE Quiet Books!!!

My mom finally decided to sell the darling quiet books she makes. Last year she made some for the festival of trees and they sold out in the first hour. Lucky me...she made Easton one and all of my kids LOVE it.
Her pay pal account is not set up yet, but if you want to order you can email her or me and we can help you. cutestquietbooksever.blogspot.com

Small Sampling of Life Around the Winn Home

We have been enjoying the efforts of our hard work from the garden.
I am not ashamed to admit that sometimes we look like white trash at our house.

Hailey getting the Principles Pride award for always being willing to help others.

Last weekend we took a drive up the canyon to look at the leaves. We had a fun time in between all of the busy-ness we have had lately!



Coleton just finished fall tee ball. He loves it!!!! Blow this picture up and look at his face...it is so worth it.


Eastons speech therapy is going well. He now yells "oly ow" (Holy Cow) all day long. He has graduated from calling John mom. He now calls him "Hun." It is fantastic when he stands up on the bench in church and yells, "HI HUN" at John sitting on the stand. Fabulous! He can pretty much say whatever he wants, he just omits the first consonant sound. Minor details really.

Off To School Coleton Goes

Coleton started 4 year old preschool today. Hopefully he takes it semi seriously.

Coleton and his buddies.

the FUN we can have at GRANDMA & GRANDPA'S

We spent the best part of Labor Day at my parents house...after John fixing my car and me cleaning the house. (Thanks to the neighbors who came ready and willing to make my car run again....thankfully it was just a loose wire.)
We love it at grandma and grandpas and it doesn't take long to figure out why:
WE CAN FLY.....

WE CAN PICK FRUIT OFF THE TREES AND SAVOR IT....

WE CAN RELAX IN THE POOL

WE CAN RIDE HORSES WITH GRANDPA.....

OR ALL BY OURSELVES...(just a wee bit nervous)

WE CAN SPLASH AND PLAY IN THE IRRIGATION WATER....

THANKS FOR LETTING US CREATE FUN MEMORIES GRANDMA AND GRANDPA!!!