Talon turns Three

On Monday, March 4th we celebrated Talon's third birthday.  

 

Here are his presents...

                                                   Yummy cupcakes....

                                and Talon opening his gifts.  What a big boy
                                you're getting to be...

                                                    HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

Myla turns Two

On Friday, March 1st Myla turned two.  Megan picked me up and we met Krin, Elsie, Talon and Tara, Carter, Ava and Ty at  Planet Play where they played minature golf, minature bowling, arcades,

and drove Go-carts.  They had a lot of fun. 

 

That evening Megan had the grandparents over for cupcakes and ice cream and for Myla to open her gifts.

Judson helping her with her new tricycle from her Mom and Dad

                     Lighting the cupcake...

                     Everyone singing Happy Birthday to her....

                       Blowing out her candles...

                            Maybe eating her cupcake...she's not a huge fan of cake...

                         Opening her presents....trying on her presents...her little Tutu and hi heels

                           Her Hello Kitty backpack and blanket...

              and her little lamb purse.   What a sweetheart. She is such a delight.

Christmas

The Christmas season is my favorite time of year and we were even fortunate to get a white Christmas this year. On Christmas morning we went over to Krin and Court to watch Elsie and Talon see what they got from Santa. Usually kids are up way early, Krin actually had to wake them up at 8:30 so they are a little dazed not quite really awake. It was fun and then we ate breakfast with them and headed over to Cory and Tara's to see what Santa brought them.

Christmas afternoon we had everyone come over for dinner and then we acted out the nativity and then opened presents.  Parents and grandkids were pretty tired so they actually left quite early.

Our Family Tradition

Each December we love doing a Sub-for-Santa as a family.  We usually try and do it the first Monday of December but Tara had to work so we did it on the second Monday.  I made homemade Chicken Noodle Soup and homemade rolls along with a recipe for Texas Roadhouse Cinnamon Honey Butter

(which turned out great) Then I gathered the grandkids and talked to them about traditions and read them a true story by Glen Rudd (a emeritus general authority) about their family doing a sub-for-Santa.  We then handed out for each grandchild a paper ornament with the girl/boy and age and toy this child wanted.  Also we had a list of other things the family needed and we divided it up and headed over to Jordan Landing where we could go shopping.  After we are done we have always gone to a McDonalds for a hot fudge sundae, unfortunately the one we went to, their ice cream machine was broken but they were connected to a gas station/store so we bought ice cream sandwiches and let the kids play in the kid area.  It is such a special evening and we hope that eventually as we keep doing this each year and as the grandkids get older they will understand more and more what we are doing.  I know the family really appreciated all that we did for them.  It is so fun to be able to GIVE to others.

Cousin Sleepover

I decided to do the cousin sleepover different this time.  During the fist week of December I had two sleepovers, one for the girls and one for the boys.  On Thursday I had Elsie and Ava sleep over and I got out all of Krin and Meg's barbie dolls, furniture, cars, everything that was barbie for them to spread out and play with down in the family room. I really think they had a great time playing barbie's, watching movies, and having no boys around they could have stayed longer playing but Krin came and got them at noon.  Then Friday evening I had Judson and Carter come and stay with us.  We took them around to see Christmas lights, stopped at Artic Circle for a milk shake and ice cream cone and then we got in the hot tub, watched movies, slept, fed them breakfast and home they went.  It worked out really well especially for the winter sleepover to do two separate ones.  In the summer we will just do one again.  We will be adding a couple more grandkids because they will be potty-trained by then.  That is the one stipulation to be included in the sleepover.
Sorry no pictures but it was a lot of fun.

November Birthdays



After the Jackson family Christmas party I told all of our kids we would take the grandkids all back to our house and they could go do something for a little while.  And then since it was actually Krin's birthday we had Court bring the birthday cake that he made and we celebrated our November birthdays that evening after the parents came to pick up their kids.

 

Jackson Family Christmas Party

Each year we have the Jackson family Christmas party.  We had it earlier than usual because Logan and Shauna were here visiting her family. So we had it on the Saturday after Thanksgiving.  After dinner we always do the left/right game with everyone bringing an inexpensive gift. So here are pictures of everyone in the circle.  Afterwards we took pictures of AJ's siblings, spouses and his dad.

 

                                         Logan, Shauna and Keith

Thanksgiving

It was actually our turn to have Thanksgiving dinner on Thanksgiving day but we didn't instead it was on Wednesday evening.  I always have a placemat with crayons for all the grandkids to color. I also made cornucopia using a waffle cone (you put it in hot water and then in microwave to soften so you can mold it to the shape and then fill it up with m&m's for each person).  We enjoyed turkey (turkey breast) just enough for our family, mashed potatoes & gravy, coconut salad (AJ's favorite), stuffing, green beans with cashews, homemade rolls, homemade pumpkin pie and chocolate pie.

 

 

                          Notice on the buffet table behind the plate is ornamental grass from our yard and after cutting it and putting it in the vase it gets all fluffy. I love it.

                                     Court and Krin

                                    

                                    Ty & Megan

                                    Cory & Tara

                                    Cousins sitting on their Uncle/Dad

                  It was a wonderful evening.  We also wrote down several things we are grateful for and went around the table to share with everyone.  As a family we truly have been blessed and have so many things to be grateful for.