Matthew got a owie

We were at the church on a Sunday night...Matthew and Tyler ran out ahead of us...we heard that Matthew ran out and hit the outdoor stair railing on the front of his head and then fell back onto the concrete and hit the back of his head. Bumps at both ends:( Poor guy. He slept with this ice pack on.

Chopping down the tree

our family tradition every year to cut a tree down....my mom joined us this year and got some great family shots! It was warm outside in December:)

I don't know how to straighten this
I love alyssa crouching down to watch





running through a hay maze

our babysitter

I've never had a regular babysitter, but Lauren offered free babysitting to me b/c I did her Senior pictures "on the house." When I was in the Young Women's program, she was one of my girls...she's heading off to Rexburg in a few months (which is so fun for me because I went to school there) and we will sorely miss her! My kids LOVE her! She plays games with them, lays on the floor, etc.

It's Christmastime in the City!

Our friend, Frank, works for Dell and got some VIP passes for us to go downtown and see the light display the night before it officially opened. It usually has huge crowds, but it was so nice to have a small group. Plus, we got lots of free food which was very exciting for all! Pizza, kettle corn, donuts, and mint hot chocolate. I LOVE free stuff! I just had my little point and shoot camera, but got some fun shots of the lights....loved this tree!

our little fam

a Texan armadillo

when we got home...all heads fell asleep to the same side:)

Syssa

I just love this cheesy smile of Alyssa's. She's never done this before, and I thought it was so funny. She was my little camera assistant as I took some picts of our friends. She was dragging my camera bag around, it was quite heavy.

I LOVE the Quints!

I mentioned before that I've had the opportunity and privelege of being the "night nanny" for these precious little ones. My friend Candida and I have done it 3 times. It's a fun sleepover for us, and even funner to laugh at each other trying to juggle, pass, appease, feed, and rock these babies at 3am. The Wilkinson Family made a calendar fundraiser that I helped contribute a few shots for...just image paying 5 co-pays each time you go to the doctor! It's a fun gift to give for Christmas, and helps out others...this is what her cousin had to say about it, I couldn't have said it better. Click here to read to read what she had to say. Click here to see the calendar....here is what I contributed:

Snow and Turkey

We went to see Michael's bro in Ft. Worth for Thanksgiving and it snowed! Fun for all...it was really cold every day, so the kids didn't play outside much. Star Wars video games were frying their brains, so we went to the church to play in the gym for a few hours. Sil and I read magazines an watched. She had her 4th baby boy 2 weeks later.

Pictionary

I LOVED sil's homemade cranberry sauce!
The kids table
We made chocolate cake balls with chocolate frosting and mixed pecans inside. All hail the Queens

Tyler's Turkey Trot

Tyler, Matthew, & Michael have regularly run in the past year. Tyler enrolled in Marathon Kids both last and this year and Matthew has joined him on jogs. Michael doesn't want them to over do it, because he's treated many children who did too many intense sports to young and are paying for it as teenagers. Michael offered suggestions before the "trot" to keep a steady pace, not too fast, not too slow. Tyler did awesome and got in 3rd place for the first grade. He was so very pleased with himself and kept saying, "Daddy was so right, I can't believe it!" They passed out ribbons to the top 20 students and accidently skipped Tyler's name. Oh, his mother made it right and corrected them by pointing to the sheet the kids signed when they came in. I was very embarresed that I had to do that, but Tyler needed his "due & recognition."
They ran 3 laps around the school campus (1.5 mile) Matthew joined Tyler on the 2nd lap....I screamed and yelled "go tyler go" as he ran by me and even ran across a field with alyssa on my hip to catch him on the other side....that was a bit embarresing as I was doing it, I must have looked pretty funny.
I love how happy he looks even while red faced and tired.
Eying his name #3 on the list (girls had a sep. sign up, but none had come in yet)
I love the smile and joy on his face:)
I was a bit of a stage mom in this event because his name was clearly on the list as the third boy in, but when the PE coach read it out, she went backwards from 20th place. She didn't read the numbers and just read the names. She went through all the boys and said..."thats all, thanks" as Tyler was patiently waiting for his name to be called. I was not about to let my boys name get passed up, and I ran up to the front and pointed to the poster and said, "Tyler Duke, he's #3, you didn't call out his name." She then haphazardly called it out and gave him the ribbon as the others were starting to sit (the boys were gone, so he stood amidst the girls). I felt quite mortified of my behavior after that. It was in front of many parents and teachers, but glad my son got his due. He is too young to realize the embaressment of a mother doing such things. Even typing this out now, I am quite embarresed of how I might have looked, but I wouldn't trade that embarresment, because otherwise it would have been my sons disappointment.