Damon's part

Kindergarten Christmas Program

Damon had his school Christmas program today. He did a great job. He said his part the best out of everyone (I'm not just saying that because I'm his mother - there were some wow's said in the audience when he was done - you can hear it on the video above). They sang some cute songs and every kid got to say three things: A part of a script (Damon's was: 'I' is for the ice on snow covered hills, where sledding is fun in spite of the spills). Then they got to say: I've been very good this year because ____ Damon said he had been good because he took out the garbage - which he does do sometimes. And the third thing was saying what they wanted for Christmas. Damon said he wanted a Lego set with a car and a ramp with a blue helicopter. It's nice that he still wants what he told Santa last month - so we will have a happy boy Christmas morning. Damon loves school and likes to play with his friends. I should put in a note that he has been chasing girls at recess and trying to kiss them - ohh no it begins already!

We were there early so Tyler went up and sat on the steps.

FHE

We played Twister for FHE activity yesterday, the boys had fun and so did Chris. A note about FHE, Tyler always has a "comet" (trying to say "comment") or a problem that we need to discuss and Damon has a hard time sitting still, but he knows a lot of his scripture stories and gospel stuff.

Snow - Finally!

Yeah, it finally snowed yesterday - December 20th. It was the first time we've had to shovel this season - but it was heavy wet snow, hard on the back. But it was great for making a snowman. We tried to get dressed and ready to go out while Chris was taking his nap, but of course he woke up right as we were heading out. So we bundled up Chris and took him out with us. He tolerated the cold alright. The boys threw some snowballs but really had fun sledding down our little hill in the backyard. I also tried to make a train in the backyard, but Christopher was needing some attention.

Park in December

Well, it wasn't too cold last week, so we went and tried out our new park. They have redone the city park by taking out all of the sand and some of the old playground equipment. They put in new play stuff and filled it in with bark. The boys had a lot of fun trying it all out. It's nice when the city takes care of things and makes changes for the better.

December Photos

Here are just some random pictures I wanted to post.

The boys looked so nice before church I had to get a picture by the tree.My brother Richard made me some name blocks to match Tyler's - now their shelves are done :) Thanks Richard they look great!Chris pulls up to everything now and is always on the move. He also is a good helper. He put away a lot of the blocks the other day.

Christmas Tree

Doug went with the YM to cut down Christmas trees last week. Damon was able to go too, so he enjoyed some daddy time. They picked us a great one - very tall like last year. I love putting up all of the ornaments and thinking of the memories that go with them. Damon and Tyler were very good helpers. Tyler definitely had his favorite spot on the tree- he hung about 6 balls on one branch.

Christmas Traditions

So the boys ask all year to get out our Christmas train - so now that it is that time of year we were finally able to get it out. They had a lot of fun watching it go round and round. Chris wasn't too sure of it when it was going, but was very curious about it when it was stopped. This of course upset Tyler and wanted me to move Chris so that he would not get the train. We've put it away for awhile now since we don't have our tree yet to put it around. We did get out our other decorations, here are the boys decorating our little Christmas tree.

Another tradition for us is making gingerbread. I asked the boys what they wanted to make this year. Tyler asked for a train, but we made one two years ago. So we went with Damon's idea of a robot. I think it turned out pretty well, and was pretty easy to assemble - which is always a plus. We enjoy our fun Christmas activities.
They of course wanted to eat the candy more than put it on. Yummy candy-canes.

Thanksgiving

Well, again I didn't take very many pictures of Thanksgiving. I'll have to ask my mom for some of hers. Anyway, we had a great trip up to Cache Valley. The roads were a bit icy on the way there - but only for the first bit. We got to mom's around 9:30 pm , the boys were all asleep so that was good. They have a hard time sleeping in the truck, but we manage.

We went to my grandma Datwyler's for the main dinner on Thanksgiving. We had quite a big crew this year. It was fun to see my cousins and get together with family. The rest of the weekend was basically a chance to visit with my immediate family. Richard and Tannie came over every evening to play games. We played Porto Rico, Band Hero, card games, Killer Bunnies and had lots of fun. We stayed up probably too late, but hey we don't see each other very often.

I went shopping with my mom the day after thanksgiving and got a lot done. I found my perfect pair of boots - they were unfortunately NOT on sale. They will hopefully last a very long time and make the price worth it. I also found a cute sweater that was on sale :). We found most of the toys and clothes gifts for cousins and had fun shopping in general. We went at the perfect time, the early bird crowds had gone and the later shoppers hadn't come yet. So we didn't have to wait in too long of lines.

I also went and saw the new Harry Potter movie with my mom and sister-in-law. It was very good. Very close to the book. Now we're all excited for the last one.

Doug was great to let me do all of these fun things. He got to do a little bit of shopping while I took the boys to the Fun Park (see pictures). The boys had fun and they each got to play one arcade game.

We decided to leave Sunday morning (not go to church) to avoid the snow storm. I-15 was slushy and slick in parts, but after Heber and Daniel's canyon it was perfectly dry. We're always glad to visit, but also always glad to be back home too. I'm so thankful that I have such a wonderful family - thanks for letting us visit and play.

Scooting Christopher

Watch out I'm mobile.

Comparing smiles

You know these are my favorite smiles, but I just had to compare to Tyler's. Chris is 10 months and Tyler is close to a year I think.

A tribute to Tyler

Tyler Scott Petersen
So I love my little 3 1/2 year old, but I need to document some of his personality so we can laugh about it later. Tyler likes to have things his own way, just like any 3 year old. Every morning he asks to say our family prayer- this isn't so much a bad thing but we have a prayer wheel so that everyone gets a turn. He pulls his morning fit and whines and he usually says his own prayer after whoever's turn it was. Tyler and Damon constantly fight over toys. They both want whatever the other one has. Tyler really struggles with waiting for his turn. The other day we were riding bikes at the church and Tyler wanted to ride. It was Damon's turn and Tyler was pulling a fit and trying to push Damon off the bike. I tried to take him to time-out but he is getting too strong for me to hold. So by the time we got back to the bike Damon had gotten off - good right? no, didn't help. Tyler still was screaming his head off, don't ask me why - he got what he wanted right? Anyway, we left the church and went for a drive - about 20 min. later Tyler finally calmed down. I don't know why he has such a hard time calming down - whew, that was a trying afternoon.

Tyler can be super silly and super sweet too. He says "I love you mom" at least 10 times a day for no apparent reason. He had fun making faces this day:
Another story about yesterday. This is a thanksgiving decoration that I put up. I wondered about the suckers, but told the boys we could eat them later and that we would just look at them right now. Well, of course Tyler kept asking about them - so I decided that I would put them away. I forgot. During quiet time Damon asked me where did all the suckers go? I was a little shocked. What did Tyler do with them? Of course he ate them. We saw a nice little pile of sticks and wrappers in the garbage can. Tyler was asleep at time so I decided that I wouldn't say anything until he asked for some more candy. Then it would be 'so sad,' he wouldn't get any more candy because he ate all the suckers without asking. Damon sort of ruined this plan by being the 'mom' ahead of me, but Tyler did say he was sorry and didn't have any other candy that day. I wasn't too upset, it really was funny - of course a kid is going to eat candy if it's sitting right in front of him. At least they were small suckers :)

Before:After:One last thing about Tyler, he is more particular about his clothes than Damon. He still thinks it's summer and wears shorts all the time ( with or without a shirt). I will usually get him dressed in the morning in pants and a long-sleeve shirt or sweatshirt, but when we get home he finds his favorite red shorts and red shirt and puts on his red boots when we have to go outside. He cracks me up sometimes. He also doesn't like his picture taken right now, as you can see from this look:

So that's a little bit about our lovable, adorable, cuddly, cute little Tyler.

Fall Photos

Here are some other things that happened this weekend.

Chris getting into some fun:

The boys helped Doug outside to take care of the yard - thanks so much boys.More cute smiles:

I also made donuts this weekend. Never done that before. They turned out pretty good too. It was fun, but time consuming. It just took awhile for them to raise and to fry and frost them. I gave most of them away since who can eat 45+ donuts in one day.

More Halloween Fun

Our Halloween week started off on Tuesday at Damon's school. They had a Fall Festival with food and carnival games. We just played the games and the boys had fun. The duck pond was a favorite of Tyler's. We carved pumpkins the night before and Damon had fun bringing it to school to show everyone and get a prize for participating. Damon was Batman this year, Tyler was Spiderman, and Christopher was a Lion.

Love eating the donuts on a string.
Catch those ducks
Damon showing the teeth he got at the Carnival - watch out!
We also went trick-or-treating at the library on Wednesday. It's nice because it's mostly inside - we just go around to all the different offices and halls in the city building.
On Friday the nearby city of Jensen did a Pumpkin Walk. It's not the grandest, but still a fun outing- if you get there early. There is not much parking so I'm glad we got there early enough to be close and still have some daylight. It got pretty cold so we didn't stay long. We saw some fun pumpkins (the Cat in the Hat was the favorite) and the boys had fun in the hay-bale maze. I was very grateful as we left that we were not in the HUGE line of cars waiting to get there to find a place to park.

Playing in the leaves by the Church where we parked.
We don't get very many family pictures, so we'll take what we can get.

On Saturday the City Recreation Center put on a pretty good Halloween Carnival and hey it was free. The kids got to walk around the outside and go "trick or treating" to the different people sitting around the sidewalk. They got plenty of candy. Then inside they have a regular carnival with a fishing pond, ring toss, bowling, cupcake walk . . . The boys had a lot of fun. Chris was starting to get fussy, but he did really well the help of some Cheerios. It was pretty loud in there, so I couldn't blame him for being a little upset.

Damon posing while we wait in line.
Tyler not wanting his picture taken.
This is the one I tried to sneak later - oh well.
Mini Golf
Bowling for Bones :)
After dinner Damon and Doug and went to a few houses before it started to rain. A lot of the neighbors wondered where Tyler was (he was done and stayed home). They are such a duo - they do everything together. I'm so glad they have each other to play with, even though they fight too.
And of course we need to show our littlest trick-or-treater: Christopher is so good to just go along with everything. He made a very cute lion - thanks for letting us borrow the costume Aunt Tannie.
Again, my favorite cheesy smile:
Got to show the tail.Happy Halloween!