Friday Night Lights

This wasn't on Friday, but the rest were. This was today...Eliza in her sweet Christmas dress. She is such a girl and I love her. I just had to put this picture up.

Okay, now this was Friday night. I got some "peak bagging shoes" for my birthday and they didn't fit just right so we went to REI on 33rd south to exchange them. After we decided to drive to Temple Square to see the lights. I think we were very blessed in our decision because we got a parking spot right in front of the Conference Center, right next to the cross walk into Temple Square. Perfect. We all went up to see the big statue of Christ in the visitor center before walking around the lights.

Jack ran away before the next picture. But Aiden and Eliza are acting sweet together.

Here we all are in front of a beautiful orange tree. We loved it.

And here is the Temple with the lights in front. Eliza kept saying, "look at the view of the temple!" We have never taken the kids to see the lights at Temple Square, it always seems like such a hassle. But it was very worth it. We all had a great time.

Jack is 3!!

My little Jack Jack turned 3 today!

He was so excited about his presents, his party and his big day!

We did the Chuck E Cheese thing again this year and he loved it. Why fix something that is not broken?

He liked the orange letters on his cake. He is an orange boy.

Blowing out the candles.

Hugging it out with Chuck E. He really loved him this year.

Grandma and Grandpa Jaussi sent him a race car set. He liked it so much he took the three little cars to bed with him tonight.

We gave him a scooter and he gave us a pirate smile. :)

When we got home the kids had to go race their scooters around the driveway. Thank you everyone for the presents and birthday wishes. Jack felt really special today, and he should because he is the best! We love Jack so much and are very happy that such fun boy gets to be ours.

The week of Birthday's is over for us now, three in 8 days not bad. Now bring on Santa!

North Pole Express

On Monday night we went with Russell's family on the Heber Creeper to the North Pole.

It was an hour and a half ride filled with Christmas songs, jokes, hot chocolate and cookies. The kids had a blast.

Here are Paige and Eliza with their song book.

Jack has been loving trains lately, so it was great to take him on a real train ride. He really had fun. In fact Aunt Joleen told him to go up to the microphone and sing a song and he did. He sang a rousing version of Twinkle Twinkle.

We picked Santa up at the North Pole and he gave all of the kids a top. Aiden asked for Harry Potter Lego's.

Eliza asked for an Easy Bake Oven and Jack asked for a Jeep. After the train ride we all headed over to the Dairy Keen in Heber...home of the train for dinner. It was such great evening. Thanks, Becky for finding the deal and putting it together!!

Niner

Aiden turned 9 yesterday! It was a great day. He got to be the spotlight in his class so the whole family got to go to school and talk about him and bring donuts. Then he went to scouts after school. When he got home we opened presents and then off to Pirate Island for dinner.

This is Aiden on crazy hair day for school a couple of weeks ago...before the buzz.

This is Aiden last night with one of his presents from his Aunts Jean, Jane and Ann. A big ole tub of cookie dough. When they come to babysit he asks them for cookie dough, not cooked. So now he has a supply! He loved it.

He got Harry Potter Hagrid's Hut from his family (along with a new bike helmet) and went to work immediately on it. He stayed up late and woke up early this morning to finish it. It was fun to see him all excited about his presents. He doesn't like cake so I made him birthday brownies and that made him happy.

My toothless wonder! I love Aiden so much and I am grateful that I get to be his mom. He has such a fun sense of humor, he is smart and a hard worker. He gets to have his friends come over Friday night for a party, so he gets to keep on partying!

Turkey Bowling

We went up to Idaho for Thanksgiving this year. The first time in like five years and it was a blast. The roads were terrible (the worst we have ever had) but the party was worth it! We ate dinner at my brother Curtis's new house and then as tradition dictates went bowling. Yes, that is right after Thanksgiving dinner we always go bowling.

Here are Russell and our niece Makia at the lanes.

Grandpa and Eliza.

Eliza with her pink ball.

Great roll, Aiden!

Jack's up with his orange ball.

My mom is sure ready. She has the bowling stance and everything!

And as for me, I bowled a ladies 59. Don't be jealous of my bowling skills. :)

While we were there we saw two movies, Harry Potter and Tangled...loved them both, built ginger bread houses, didn't go to bed before midnight once (including all of the kids), played games until we couldn't anymore, watched a football game for the first time in years, ate and ate and had the best time.

This is Halloween

Happy Halloween. We have had a great Halloween season...we went on Halloween Cruise down the Provo River, we went on the Nightmare Express (in Lindon), went to a wonderful Halloween party, and of course carved pumpkins, went trick or treating and ate too much candy.

Here is the Ninja.

Pretty Pocahontas.

And the snake.

And about the pumpkin carving... Russell carved "the big one" with surprising ease. And he of course harvested some of the seeds for next year. If anyone is interested in trying to grow a giant pumpkin we have a seed for you!

Aiden helped Jack carve a baby one.

And Eliza carved her own this year and did a great job.

Here is the Happy Pumpkin.

And just for fun...here is Aiden in the pumpkin. It was pretty big!!

Jack

We went shopping yesterday and when we got home Jack said, "I want my gun."
And I said, "I didn't buy you a gun."
Jack said, "Yes, you did."
I said, "No, I didn't."
And he said, "Yes, you did."
I looked into the sack and sure enough there was a little Nerf gun. So I grab the receipt to check and see if I actually bought it. And sure enough I did.
He really is a sneaky boy.

And I can not deny him.

Harvest.

We planted one thing this year....a giant pumpkin.

Russell ordered special seeds on line and babied it along all spring and summer.

And it grew and grew.

We took the scale outside and it said 116 pounds!

It really was heavy. I don't know how we managed to get it on the front porch, but it's there and beautiful!!

Autograph

Last night we went to the Orem Library to hear Brandon Mull speak. He is the author of The Candy Shop War and Fablehaven. I read The Candy Shop War to Aiden this summer and we both really enjoyed it, so when Aiden heard he was speaking he really wanted to go. He was very entertaining and it was a fun night. Afterward he was signing autographs and Aiden had brought his book so of course he wanted it signed.

We waited in line for and hour. Aiden said, "It was totally worth it!" Brandon Mull was very nice and it was fun to see Aiden get excited over an author.

Aiden and Brandon Mull.

We haven't read Fablehaven...has anybody, and are they good? I think Aiden was about the only one there with a The Candy Shop War book, everybody else had Fablehaven. We might have to give it a try.

Eliza and Jack and Russell did not want to wait for an hour for the book signing, so Russell called his mom to come and pick them up. Isn't it nice that even at 34 you can call your mom to pick you up from the library and she will!! :)

Must Be Fall

If we are in Yellowstone it must be fall! We love to go to Yellowstone in the fall when the leaves are changing, the elk are bugling and the weather is usually perfect. We usually have a big crowd that comes with us, but this year we only had about 15. That seems like a lot, but compared to the regulars it was a small turn out. We still had the best time and loved being able to go.

Aiden, Russell, and Uncle Reed took a hike down Uncle Tom's Trail to the lower Falls in the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone. It was 300 steps down and then the hard part 300 steps back up! Aiden wanted to race up the stairs so they did. Last night (2 days after racing up) Russell was complaining that his legs were sore, I said probably from all of those stairs!

Russell and Aiden by the falls.

Russell and I took all of the cousins down to the brink of the falls. It was a fun little walk down and little hard coming up but it was worth it.

Here was the end of the trail. The top of the waterfall. It was so cool, the river just looked so peaceful above it and then whoosh over the cliff.

Russell and I getting our picture taken by Natalie. Nat and Hallie had their cameras out taking pictures of everything. It was cute. The weather on Friday was a little cool but on Saturday it was so warm and lovely.

Here are Jack, Aiden and Jace. The boy cousins on the Jaussi side. The rest are girls!

We found a beautiful picnic place in the Lamar Valley on Saturday. And here is my mom and her girls. It was great to be with my sisters over the weekend. Megan surprised us all with a last minute decision to fly in from Denver to join us. I was so happy. My brothers didn't come this time, you know hunting season...

Here is my mom pointing to the tree across the street from our hotel. Looks harmless enough....

Until you get underneath and see the bear snoozing away after eating a bunch of apples! It was crazy to see that bear right in town. We usually see bear in the park (we saw two this time), but this is the first time in 8 0r 9 years going to the same hotel that we have seen a bear by it. You might want to double click on it to get a better view.

A trip to Yellowstone would not be complete until we have ice cream at the Old Faithful Inn! It was a great time and we can hardly wait until next year!