Happy Birthday, Drew!!

Drew turned 8 today!! 

I can't believe he is already 8! He is in 2nd grade and most the books he reads are at a 5th grade level. I can't keep him away from books! Usually, its not a problem, but sometimes he needs to go to bed and get some sleep!

After school I let him invite over some friends. One of the boys asked when the party was going to start and I just laughed! I told him I was sorry, but this was just a play group and they had to entertain themselves!! He accepted that answer and quickly found something to do! Phew. I thought I might have to figure out some games or something! 

Another Mom of the Year Award for me. I TOTALLY spaced making Drew a cake! What kind of mom does that?! So I have a giant muffin tin, so I quickly made him this poor little cake. He thought it was pretty cool and seemed happy. He probably realized it was this or nothing! Poor kid. He really does get a raw deal with his birthday so close to Christmas!

If it weren't bad enough, this little terror got to it before Drew could!

He didn't do TOO much damage to it!

I'm glad he had a fun birthday even if I dropped the ball big time! 

Marley & Me

We borrowed Marley & Me from a friend in our ward, because I was so sure that Max is just like Marley. There were a TON of similarities between the two dogs, but it kind of made me grateful for Max and made me realize that he isn't as bad as he could be!! 

We watched the movie as a family and at the end of the movie I had to leave the room. (I couldn't let Vaughn see me be sad over a dog!) It was a lot harder to watch than I thought it would be. I left the room, but I could hear Drew in there just sobbing. He kept saying, "I don't want that to be Max. I don't want that to be Max." Vaughn explained to him that it will in fact be Max eventually and that made Drew just sob more. I felt like just an awesome mom for letting Drew watch it. Mom of the Year Award goes to me!! 

It was as if Max could sense what we'd watched!

Found the video below from a month or so ago that I never posted. This dog is just going to escape one of these days. It is crazy how high he can go!

School, Soap & Ouchies!

Mason is doing so AWESOME at reading and writing!

When he takes his time, his work is so neat and tidy! 

He got his report card and is doing great in class. The teacher wrote some very nice comments on his report and said something about how she loves how excited he gets over things and he reminds her of the Incredible Hulk! It is very fitting of him. His nickname on the Linkenhoker side is 'Tank' which fits him as well! 

Taysom loves being by Mason. They are almost inseparable! 

This kid LOVES soap!

I'll have to think of a different punishment for when he gets older!

Just love him to pieces!

Taysom has discovered Sam's horse and he goes crazy on it! 

The other kids think it is so fun to watch him and help him on and take him for rides around the house!

Yesterday, Taysom fell and hit one of our end tables. I held him for awhile because he was really upset, but I didn't even notice he was bleeding until Vaughn came home from lunch. I'm such a bad mom! It was bleeding pretty good (I know that is typical of head wounds) but it stopped after a while and with a bandaid. No need for stitches! 

His wound today. 

It still has a nice goose egg under there. It is hard to see because his hair is so long. That's why I didn't notice it in the first place.

I couldn't get my camera out fast enough, but he was trying to straighten his hair! He catches on quick. I forget how impressionable these little kids are! I love his little face in this picture!

He is such a goon! 

Just How We Roll!

Taysom always watches from the front door as I walk Sam out to the bus! He wants to come out with me so badly, but it is soo bitterly cold! Especially, with the wind that we have almost constantly!

He is starting to just lay down whenever he gets tired. It works for me! I would rather have him lounge on the floor instead of crying and whining!

This kid is starting to read! 

He hasn't wanted too for the longest time, but has finally found the desire! He is doing great and I am crossing my fingers he turns into an avid reader like Drew and myself!

We had a fun little storm yesterday! Made me so so happy that I didn't have anywhere that I needed to go! It doesn't look like much in this picture, but it sure hit hard not even a half hour later! 

I went out in the garage to go to the mailbox and quickly changed my mind. Brrrr! It makes my toes cold just watching it again! I was so hoping that school would be cancelled this morning, but no. It didn't last long enough or cause enough snow drifts. Rats!

I love my Mace! He always has something nice to say or something nice to do for someone else! He is an amazing example to me!!

We've had so much fun taking selfies this week! Vaughn has been BOMBARDED by pictures from us. Hope it didn't make him homesick! I love when Tays does this! He is making the ewww sound! 

Holy tongue! I think he wins the award for "Longest Tongue" in our family! 

I've been working on completing past projects. This one was from early summer. 'bout time I got 'er done!

This one hasn't been as long, but this is the 2nd time I've done it. The first time I was not happy with how it turn out, so I stripped it down and started from scratch. I like it much better now. Red is a new color for the inside of our house. I hope it doesn't stand out like a sore thumb! At least our last name starts with an 'H' and not a 'U". There is no way it would be red if that were the case!!

While Dad's Away....

So Vaughn left Sunday night to New Mexico with his office. Since he has been gone, the kids and I have been trying to stay busy and do extra things, so we don't drive each other crazy! 

I found a website from Pinterest that had free printable Christmas coloring pages.

I decided we would make a college for our front door of all our colorings. The kids loved it! They all did such a great job!

After a little while, it turned into crazy time!!

I love how Sam photo bombed them! She is hilarious!

She TOTALLY knows what she is doing!

Finally, she just completed the madness!

Hahahaha! Taysom totally thought Mason was coming in for a kiss! 

Awkward!! 

I love his face when he realizes, wait, what? You weren't trying to kiss me?

Then he's like 'whatever!'

Love how expressive Mason can be!

Out of the mouth of Drew

"Whoever made up homework I'm super mad at...unless it was Taysom. Then I'm not mad at him."

Drew loathes homework. I should just record everything he says while he is doing it, because it is hilarious!

Thanksgiving 2013

What a wonderful Thanksgiving my family had this year! We are so blessed with wonderful family and friends! We were able to go to Salt Lake and to have Thanksgiving dinner with the Linkenhoker side of the family. 

It started out with the 3rd annual (at least for us) Utah Human Race 5k! All the money donated is for the Utah Food Bank. They said this year they were able to donate over $100.000!! I could tell there were quite a few more people than last year and a boat load more than the first year! 

This year we had more people join us and it was so fun! I was so glad that Alayna and her sister in-law, Lisa could come with us! Alayna is the one who started me on this whole crazy 5k thing and it just doesn't feel the same without her with me! 

Lisa, Lisa & Alayna

The weather was actually really nice. It was cold, but it was too cold!

Connie, my mom, Breana & Walt

Oh and I'm in there somewhere.

I made Alayna climb a pole to get a shot of the crowd. She is so great at doing my weird requests!

I could not believe how many people there were!! I think they said 6500 racers!!

The red arch is the starting line!

Our scared, oh crap it's time to start faces!

Alayna's boyfriend in the red.

Our whole group after the race!

Weston, Connie, Heaven, Heather, Walt, Lisa, me, Lisa, Breana, my mom & Alayna!

I must have switched my phone to black and white as I handed it off to the guy to take this picture. Whoops.

'Cause sometimes the 8 oz zippy cup just isn't enough! 

Our redneck Thanksgiving! 

Where's yours, Walt?!

The two granddaughters! 

Sam loves hanging out with 'B'! Breana is so sweet to her and plays with her every time we go home!

The dessert that we brought. (Vaughn made it while I was at the race, but it was my idea!) He was quite proud of it, as he should've been. It was so good!!!

After a long day of playing the kids were EXHAUSTED! I can usually tell how hard they played that day, by how crazy Mason is sleeping! He moves a lot when he is super tired!

The next morning I caught a rare occurrence of all of them sitting, being nice and quiet together! Of course, Tays lasted for less then 5 minutes and then he was out of there!

Vaughn had to teach the young men and I had to teach the young women (for the first time, scary!!!) on Sunday, so we decided to head home Friday night. I think we left Bountiful around 7, but with all the stops we had to make we didn't get home until after midnight. It should have only taken three hours! Anyway, so we grabbed The Croods from Redbox and it almost immediately scared Sam. She threw her blanket over her head and this is how she rode home...the whole way home. I think she fell asleep shortly after doing this, but she never took it down. Before she fell asleep I asked her if she wanted to watch the movie, and I heard this little voice from behind the blanket say, "No tank you. I scared!" 

You can tell Tays is tired, when he just lays down on the floor and stays there. It is quite cute just to watch him chill and watch whatever may be going on around him!

Can't get enough of this little girl while she is sleeping. She is such an angel....when she's sleeping!