Braces!

Nicks' smile has been changed forever. On December 12th Nick got braces. The orthodontist is pretty excited to see the outcome of his braces. He says, "He is a good looking kid now, but just wait and see how much more handsome he will be." (Okay, yes that does cause more gray hairs) I am glad that we could finally get this done for him. He has wanted them forever. He is adjusting pretty good to them. He does still have a hard time chewing and is learning that there is just some food he cannot eat anymore. He has had some pain from the tension on them, but he is tough and is getting through it.

Christmas Tree(s)

One more reason to be thankful that my sons are getting so big, Christmas lights.....Nick has taken over the job of putting up the lights on the house. HALLELUJAH!!! He had the house lit up in no time this year with a little help from Ty (who is still overcoming a huge fear of heights) Tyler was able to go out on the roof above the garage but that was as far as he would venture, which is farther than he went last year so hopefully by the time Nick has left for his mission, Ty will be able to take the reins. Nick has no fear of being up there, especially since he helped build a house this summer and spent time up on a very steep roof doing the roofing. Not only has Nick taken over the outside lights he does the lights on the trees for me. Once again can I get a big HALLELUJAH! It just makes me laugh to see him get frustrated....."Aaaaggghhh, why if one light goes out do they all go out. This is sooooo dumb". etc. etc. Seriously he does a great job and knows exactly how I want it to look and he gets it done. Every year it gets easier and easier for him so now I just sit back and get to watch. Then the fun of decorating the tree comes in. We actually do three trees. Why? Two years ago after Christmas during the clearance sales I found two six foot trees that were on clearance for like $4.oo so I bought them. We now put them up with the big tree. One of the trees represents our life. Kevin and I started the tradition of buying an ornament each year that represented something from that year, for example "Our first Christmas", we have an ornament for each of the grandkids, and we have one that shows a family of four which represents the year the boys were sealed to us, there are many, many more memories on the tree. It is a fun tree which means alot to me. I love pulling the ornaments out of their boxes each year and remembering what they all represent. Because of all it represents it is of course my favorite tree. Here are just a few pics of the decorating and the final products.

Nick and Uncle Ryan: Thanksgiving

As usual Thanksgiving was celebrated at our house this year. However, it wasn't quite the full house we normally have because my brother Jeremy and his family had to take their turn with Beths' family. So it was just my little family(3), with my brother Ryan, my mom and my sister Kim and her family (5). I cooked two turkeys and all the fixins (you have to have leftover turkey) We didn't do a big formal dinner this year, we just set it up buffet style and let everyone serve themselves. Nick and his Uncle Ryan made me laugh most the day, they were the biggest cheeseballs to be found. I love the picture of them staring in the oven waiting for dinner to be finished. Once everything was cleaned up they got busy playing Playstation. I haven't laughed that hard in a long time. There was so much trash talking and razzing each other that I don't know how they were able to play any games. I wish I had grabbed the video camera because it was so cute and as I said, funny......Both of the boys love their Uncle Ryan and it is not hard to see why.